No Time to Lose: CVF-V20 Response to the Baku to Belem Roadmap to $1.3 Trillion

The CVF-V20 welcomes the publication of the Report on the Baku to Belém Roadmap to $1.3T. The horrific impact of the recent, category 5, Hurricane Melissa on Jamaica, Haiti and Cuba and Super Typhoon Fung-wong in the Philippines has only highlighted the growing severity of climate change and the damage it inflicts on countries least responsible for the crisis. The need for a clear and inclusive pathway to meet climate finance needs for the long haul could not be more urgent. Climate vulnerable economies have acted decisively and led the way by advancing ambitious Climate Prosperity Plans, through our nationally determined contributions, and national adaptation plans. It is time for COP30 to reflect similar ambition with the level of seriousness and urgency required to rapidly mobilize finance at the scale and speed demanded by climate science and the level of suffering being experienced in our countries.

As highlighted in the Third CVF Leaders Declaration, vulnerable nations need a comprehensive Adaptation Package that scales up adaptation finance, delivers predictable and affordable resources, ensures grants and results-based funding for completed NAPs, and strengthens early warning systems, and pre-arranged financing to complement. Adaptation must be delivered at scale, at speed, and at costs our countries can afford.

At the same time, both the CVF and V20 have emphasized that health resilience is now a frontline climate imperative. Extreme temperatures, vector-borne diseases, food and nutrition insecurity, and rising health care burdens are driving fiscal strain and deepening vulnerability. The 15th V20 Finance Ministers Communique calls for resilient health systems, strengthened climate-health surveillance, protection for workers and vulnerable populations, and urgent cooperation to respond to rising health sector costs.

The CVF-V20 has been clear in its call for a dedicated climate finance target of at least US$300 billion per year by 2035 in public and grant-based resources, with developed countries taking the lead, as well as an overall climate finance goal of at least US$1.3 trillion per year for developing countries by 2035 from all public and private sources. We have also stressed the importance of tripling adaptation finance with multilateral development banks substantially scaling up their supply of affordable adaptation finance.

In the Baku to Belém Roadmap, we are encouraged by the following:

  • Proposals to scale up affordable finance: It is essential for V20 countries to have access to finance at rates below their medium-term GDP growth rates, and the Roadmap proposes a suite of valuable measures to scale up affordable finance. We underscore the continued need for multilateral development banks to implement capital adequacy framework reforms and to explore capital increases that will allow them to meet climate and development goals. We support the call for the rechanneling of Special Drawing Rights and the exploration of a new issuance. We also support the call on development banks and climate funds to channel concessional finance into long-term foreign exchange hedging facilities.

 

  • Support for country platforms and ecosystem of domestic and regional financial institutions: We endorse the recommendation for predictable and flexible support through delivery units/country platforms that are government-led. The Roadmap also emphasizes the need to strengthen national financial ecosystems, e.g. by channeling assistance through and working with national and public development banks, domestic commercial banks, to build lasting capacity and deliver climate-aligned and bankable pipelines. This is crucial for domestic market deepening to enable Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) participation in climate-resilient growth.

 

  • Attention to debt solutions: The Roadmap is absolutely correct to highlight this matter. The sovereign debt crisis has eroded our ability to tackle the climate crisis. In this regard, we welcome reforms like expanding the use of climate-resilient debt clauses and reforming the World Bank and International Monetary Fund’s Debt Sustainability Framework to incorporate climate- and nature-related risks and the benefits of measures to reduce them.

 

  • Recognition of SIDS and LDCs: The Roadmap rightly emphasizes the special realities and vulnerabilities of Small Island Developing States and Least Developed Countries, whose limited fiscal space, high exposure to climate shocks, and structural barriers severely constrain their access to both public and private finance.

 

  • Critical role for Finance Ministers and the V20: The V20’s leadership in driving solutions to close the financial protection gap through pre-arranged finance is recognized in the roadmap, which calls for further expansion with the support of the insurance industry and partners. Likewise, the roadmap emphasizes the critical role of finance ministers in advancing dialogue and action with credit rating agencies to integrate climate considerations, long-term scenario analysis and voluntary debt treatments into rating methodologies to lower the cost of capital and increase fiscal space.

It is particularly encouraging that the Roadmap references and embraces the value of the Bridgetown Initiative which originated in a CVF V20 member-country. The Roadmap is useful in providing pathways to the $1.3 trillion as anchored in the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) and also needs to include pathways for the immediate $300 billion. However, the Roadmap is missing vital ingredients that are required to bring ambition to the fore:

  • Precision. We are alarmed by the lack of precision on the sources, amounts, and timelines for achieving $1.3 trillion. Unless this is addressed, the integrity of outcomes will remain under question.

 

  • Accountability. Accountability should be the glue that holds the Roadmap together. Promised financing needs to reach vulnerable target countries and must be identifiable. Commitments need to be paired with corresponding reporting metrics that also account for effectiveness and impact. To sustain ambition, we need more accountability in the Roadmap, not less.

 

  • Urgency. The Roadmap should not be used as an opportunity to continue negotiations. It is not meant to identify points for disembarkation and dithering. Instead of policy nitpicking picnics, the Roadmap must guide the world safely past danger.

Therefore, the CVF-V20 calls for a Belem finance package including the following components:

  1. Led by developed countries, national commitments on how the inner core of $300 billion in the form of public and grant-based finance will be reached to be announced by early 2026.

 

  1. Immediate replenishment of the Adaptation Fund and GEF-9 (July 2026–June 2030), with a special focus on resourcing the LDCF. The Adaptation Fund must reach at least USD 300 million in 2025, followed by a step-wise scale-up from 2026.

 

  1. Accelerated and adequate fundraising for the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD). The size of FRLD needs to correspond to the scale of losses and damage suffered by CVF-V20 economies. The FRLD is not resourced at scale, and we call for fundraising efforts with vigor.

 

  1. Timely recapitalization of the Green Climate Fund, aligned with its long-term “50by30” vision, to manage a cumulative USD 50 billion by 2030.

 

  1. MDB finance. MDBs must demonstrate credible pathways of achieving scaled up financing by 2026. Their financing should reach at least a fourth of the $1.3 trillion target. For MDBs to play the pivotal role foreseen by the Roadmap, structural reforms are needed, which the Roadmap falls short on specifying. Additionally, clear pathways to leverage private capital, not only for mitigation but also adaptation need to be developed.

 

  1. Pre-arranged financing. Only 2% of crisis finance is pre-arranged. A global commitment is required to scale-up pre-arranged finance to 20 percent by 2035; a start by MDBs to achieve a ten-fold increase in pre-arranged finance to 20 percent by 2030 is required, followed by a doubling thereafter. The V20-G7 Global Shield supports climate vulnerable countries’ access to pre-arranged tools to reach people and enterprises immediately when disasters strike and should be further upscaled.

 

  1. Reform the Common Framework. A commitment to align the sovereign debt architecture towards the Paris Agreement’s goals. We have called for a two-year standstill to expedite negotiations and restructuring based on climate and development needs to ensure that restructuring enables rather than impedes the achievement of national climate goals. We call for extending payment terms by 40 years to open up space for climate investments.

 

  1. Expand the use of debt-for-climate swaps and guarantee facilities. For countries that do not require restructuring, fiscal space should be relaxed through the expanded use of debt-for-climate swaps. Guarantees can help lower the cost of capital and allow borrower countries to reissue bonds that are more affordable.

 

  1. Replenish the Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust. This trust enables disaster-stricken countries to focus on recovery and rebuilding.

 

  1. A new issuance of SDRs. The IMF board should agree on a new issuance of SDRs to support liquidity needs and enable further rechanneling of SDRs towards climate purposes in countries which most need this support.

The Baku to Belém Roadmap is a welcomed contribution, but its success will depend on the willingness of key actors to follow the pathway it provides. This journey begins at COP30, where countries must deliver a bold Adaptation Package, solutions for debt sustainability, and pathways for resilient health systems to safeguard the most exposed nations. We in the CVF-V20 will do our part and we call on all other stakeholders to take the transformative actions outlined in the Roadmap.

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About CVF-V20

The CVF-V20 represents 74 member-countries from small island developing states (SIDS), least developed countries (LDCs), low-to-middle income countries (LMICs), landlocked developing countries (LLDCs), and fragile and conflict-affected states (FCS). Working together, the CVF-V20 aims to achieve climate justice through the realization of Climate Prosperity Plans, which contain ambitious economic and financial resilience strategies designed to attract investment and resources that advance the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), 30×30 Global Biodiversity, and help keep the average global temperatures to the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C safety threshold.

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CVF-V20 Membership

Africa: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Chad, Comoros, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana (Troika), Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda

Asia: Afghanistan, Bangladesh (Troika), Bhutan, Cambodia, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Timor-Leste, Vietnam

Caribbean: Barbados (Chair/Troika), Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Saint Lucia, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago

Latin America: Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay

Middle East: Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen

Pacific: Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu

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