In April 2025, on the sidelines of the Spring Meetings of the World Bank and IMF, the V20 Finance Ministers adopted a communique outlining the key challenges that member countries face. As global temperatures rise and climate shocks worsen, official development assistance (ODA) and fiscal space continue to shrink. Historically high levels of debt servicing costs, loss of GDP growth potential, increasing exposure to acute food insecurity, and vulnerabilities to climate-induced health risks and displacement are some of the concerns of our membership. 

The calls outlined in the communique are at the core of the CVF-V20’s priorities. These include: 

1. Accessibility of Capital
   
   While IDA and ODA remain a lifeline for CVF-V20 economies, ODA is declining as a share of gross national income (GNI) in member countries. In order to support the implementation of growth-guided climate resilience projects and manage climate induced loss and damage, member countries require concessional finance. Therefore, the CVF-V20 urges MDBs to deliver on longstanding financial commitments, scale up concessional finance and reform financial mechanisms to align with climate science and the vulnerabilities faced by V20 economies.
   
   The unfortunate reality is that MDB loans are not concessional, with loans priced at market rates. In order for MDB loans to be concessional and accessible for vulnerable economies, particularly those in high debt distress, the MDB loans must be priced below the medium-term GDP growth rate.
   
   In order to further expand accessibility to capital, the CVF-V20 also calls on MDBs to adopt capital recycling to refinance operating assets to invest in climate and development aligned assets. 
   
   
2. Empowering Country Platforms
   
   Among the concerns of the CVF-V20 are the current fragmented, short-term approach to projects that are not adequately aligned with national priorities. As such we advocate for country-led platforms that are country-owned and responsive to national priorities. Effective coordination across government entities, policy coherence and reform, and active private sector engagement are critical to unlock the green investments needed to deliver resilient infrastructure and services. 
   
   
3. Pre-Arranged and Trigger-Based Financing
   
   Those most in need of climate finance – particularly in the aftermath of climate disasters  – do not receive sufficient support in a timely manner. Only 2% of the USD $76 billion spent on climate finance was pre-arranged finance. Of this, only 1.4% reached low-income countries. The CVF-V20 is therefore calling for a tenfold increase in pre-arranged finance to 20% by 2030, with this amount being doubled afterwards.
   
   Given the 98% financial protection gap, the CVF-V20 also called on donors to deliver on funding pledges to the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage as well as the expansion of the Global Shield Against Climate Risks to reach more countries and regions.
   
   Furthermore, pre-arranged financing solutions also require better transparency in design, with increased flexibility through independent validation of a country’s damage assessment as a simplified method to trigger pre-arranged financing. 
   
   
4. IMF Engagement and Program Reform
   
   While the IMF’s Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF) is an essential source of support to address balance of payment crises, the RSF should be made more accessible, particularly for climate-vulnerable economies, by removing the requirement for a concurrent restructuring program.
   
   Additionally, the CVF-V20 believes that the IMF program design requires further consideration, particularly in regards to scaling up investments that support countries in their efforts to navigate economic and climate shocks. The review of conditionalities offers a critical opportunity for the IMF to better align its program design with the Paris Agreement, and enable countries to achieve their national climate change commitments. 
   
   
5. Debt
   
   Debt servicing levels have reached historically high levels of 15% on average across our membership, with 11 countries spending over 25% of government revenue on servicing external debt. The IMF and World Bank have also identified nineteen CVF-V20 countries as being in high-risk or already in debt distress. As a result, there is limited fiscal space for the urgent investments needed to build resilience in our member countries.
   
   However, the IMF and World Bank’s debt sustainability analyses (DSAs), despite being critical for accessing finance, do not account for climate risks, resilience investments and natural capital. Consequently, important needs such as concessional capital and debt relief are buried under the existing technical details. Therefore, DSAs that include climate and nature-related valuation and investment needs should form the basis of debt restructuring.
   
   The Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4), can support opening opportunities for reforming the G20 Common Framework and prioritize concessional capital and debt restructuring so that highly indebted, climate vulnerable countries can invest in essential priorities such as health, infrastructure and climate resilience. Such reform must be complemented with debt relief mechanisms. 
   
   

With the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development approaching, it offers a timely opportunity to bring the challenges of our member countries to the forefront of the global agenda. For the CVF-V20, the reform of the international financial architecture and the nature of the current capital flows is inseparable from surviving the climate crisis.