MINISTERIAL DIALOGUE
Ministerial Dialogue
A principal forum of the V20 Finance Ministers of the Climate Vulnerable Forum co-hosted by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund on the margins of the Spring and Annual Meetings.
This high-level dialogue of V20 Finance Ministers, chaired by the incumbent CVF-V20 Chair, will bring together members of the V20, key partners, including international organizations, the G7, G20, and G24, to address the pressing climate crisis.
The discussions will focus on challenges including a lack of fiscal space, high debt servicing costs, high cost of capital, unprepared health systems, and opportunities including green growth, security and new jobs across the convergence of climate, development, and nature, amidst growing climate shocks.
The high-level dialogue will conclude with the adoption of a Communiqué outlining key issues and a shared vision for advancing climate prosperity through multilateral cooperation.
CVF-V20 Context and Enabling Climate Prosperity
For too long, climate-vulnerable nations, states, communities and youth have been told to adapt, cope, and endure—as if climate resilience were simply an act of will, rather than a matter of investment. While the need for increased donor resources remains critical, we also recognize that mutual solidarity, best practice sharing, and collaborative efforts areessential to transform our collective response.
The truth is, V20 countries require $490 billion per year by 2030 to invest in climate action, development, and nature, which is approximately five times the current levels of finance, at $90 billion per year. And yet, the bulk of climate finance isn’t reaching those who need it most and who remain locked out of recovery and resilience. While disasters hit harder and faster, finance moves so slowly, weighed down by the tonnage of barriers that punish the vulnerable with more delay and debt.
Despite these odds, there is potential not only to survive but to prosper, and in doing so demonstrate real global leadership. The real question is how quickly capital can be mobilized to build adaptive capacity today while securing long-term futures. The shift must occur from crisis management to opportunity creation by embedding climate resilience at the center of budgets, policies, and financing models. The ability to succeed in the future rests on the determination to establish climate resilience as a core element of macroeconomic fundamentals.
Today’s Global Context
The financial system is failing. Capital is flowing in the wrong direction—away from those who need it most and into the hands of the wealthiest. In 2023, net outflows from Emerging and Developing Countries surged by $68 billion to nearly $200 billion, through private creditors in interest and repayments. IFIs pulled another $40 billion in non-concessional finance, while concessional support was a dismal $2 billion—this, as drought devastates Sub-Saharan Africa. Private capital is impatient, and IFIs aren’t stepping up.
Just when climate vulnerable developing economies need large-scale financing, they’re forced to cut health, education, and infrastructure. In 2025, major donors are making deep aid cuts, slashing global ODA by up to $48 billion by 2027—a 14-21% drop. At a time of escalating health, food, and climate crises, the world’s safety net is shrinking. Health infrastructure is at its all-time weakest due to the unfettered expansion of vector-borne diseases and worsening extreme heat-related morbidity and mortality. The world is grappling with intensifying food insecurity and high levels of youth unemployment.
Moreover, global tipping points are fast approaching. The European Copernicus report put global temperatures in 2024 at 1.6 degrees C, already a tenth of a degree over our hard-fought Paris limit. While we should gauge climate conditions by trends instead of year-by-year snapshots, we are clearly on a dangerous trajectory and time is not on our side. The rapid rise in temperatures has translated directly to an increase in extreme heat stress.
Critical biomes—from coral reefs and rainforests to permafrost—are nearing irreversible thresholds. Their collapse will accelerate climate feedback loops, trigger widespread ecosystem failures, and intensify climate-induced disasters.
Consequently, half of the world’s poorest countries are now poorer than before. Funding for adaptation is woefully inadequate, as it remains at less than 10% of global climate finance flows, and the gap between what is necessary and what is available is widening. Only a very small percentage of adaptation finance reaches the frontlines of the climate crisis and none of it at the scale required by the climate vulnerable.
