Climate Finance Roadmap from Baku to Belém

The Project

Following the successful publication of the independent review on access to Vertical Environmental Funds at the 2024 G20 Summit in Brazil, where Globalfields was commissioned by the independent High-Level Expert Group and Brazil’s Institute of Climate and Society (ICS), Globalfields was engaged again by ICS to contribute to the Roadmap from Baku to Belém.

The Roadmap aims to scale up climate finance, with a focus on mobilising USD 1.3 trillion annually for developing countries. Building on the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) decision from COP29, the Roadmap outlines strategies to reform multilateral finance, improve access to climate funding, strengthen domestic capacities, and unlock large-scale investment opportunities.

Developed under the COP29 and COP30 presidencies, the Bakuto Belém Roadmap provides a strategic framework to accelerate investment in low-carbon and climate-resilient pathways in developing countries. Coordinated by Brazil’s Ministry of Finance, the report reflects recommendations from 36 countries and advances climate finance across five priority axes below. This vision will be operationalised by the COP30 Circle of Finance Ministers through targeted actions designed to address structural constraints and close the financing gap:

1. Scaling up concessional finance and optimising climate funds

2. Reforming MDBs to expand sustainable finance

3. Strengthening domestic capacity and investment frameworks, including country platforms

4. Developing innovative and scalable financial solutions to mobilise private capital

5. Strengthening regulatory approaches for climate finance

A core priority of the roadmap is scaling up concessional finance and optimising Vertical Climate and Environmental Funds (VCEFs), which directly support the NCQG’s emphasis on highly concessional finance for developing countries. Globalfields’ technical contribution to the roadmap focused primarily on defining a clear pathway to operationalise this priority.

Globalfields Contribution

In alignment with the recommendations previously outlined inthe IHLEG independent review, Globalfields conducted in-depth interviews with the heads and managers of all four vertical climate funds, including the Green Climate Fund (GCF), the Adaptation Fund, Climate Investment Funds (CIFs), and the Global Environment Facility (GEF), to explore the following themes and create an actionable framework for scaling up concessional finance through the VCEFs:

1. Pathways to maximise the transformational impact of limited concessional finance across emerging anddeveloping economies

2. Opportunities to increase VCEF mobilisation through market-based mechanisms and blended finance

3. Integrated, country-driven approaches that strengthen national leadership and alignment with country strategies

4. Improvements to fund access and operational efficiency

5. New sources of concessional climate finance, including windfall taxes from hard-to-abate industries.

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