Climate change and development policy Climate finance: Germany remains a reliable partner

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PRESS RELEASE 29 September 2025 International climate finance 2024: Germany remains reliable partner in global climate policy Internal link

In its development policy, the German government uses public funding to support the implementation of the Paris Agreement. This is a shared responsibility which requires countries across the world to take action – including through contributions from developing countries and emerging economies and through the participation of the private sector.

Only if developing countries and emerging economies, too, undertake ambitious efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the consequences of climate change will it still be possible to achieve climate neutrality and climate resilience before the end of this century. Supporting these countries' efforts is not just an expression of global responsibility. It also contributes to long-term stability, security and economic cooperation – which benefits Germany, too.

Ambitious new funding target adopted

Following intensive negotiations at COP29 in Baku in November 2024, the Conference of the Parties adopted a new climate finance goal (New Collective Quantified Goal – NCQG), which envisages a core goal of at least 300 billion US dollars a year for the period up to 2035. Starting in 2026, this core goal has replaced the old 100 billion dollar target. In addition, agreement was reached at COP30 in Belém that adaptation finance should be tripled under the NCQG by 2035.

As early as in 2009, the world's industrialised countries decided at the Copenhagen climate summit to provide and/or mobilise, from 2020, an annual 100 billion US dollars for climate change mitigation and adaptation in developing countries. At the 2015 Paris climate conference, it was agreed to extend this goal to 2025. According to OECD figures, the target has been reached every year since 2022. Then at the climate conference in Glasgow in 2021, the industrialised countries pledged to at least double their adaptation finance for developing countries from 2019 levels by 2025, in order to help achieve a balance between adaptation and mitigation finance.

The industrialised countries will continue to take the lead on providing funding. Countries in the Global South with relatively high income levels are to contribute as well. This change in the donor base constitutes a paradigm shift. For the first time, developing countries' own climate-related voluntary contributions will count towards the new climate finance target.

Multilateral development banks (MDBs) and climate funds, too, play an important role for protecting people worldwide from the impacts of climate change. For example, the NCQG requires contributors to triple annual outflows from climate funds such as the Green Climate Fund (GCF) from 2022 levels by 2030. MDBs, too, have committed to significantly increase their climate finance. At COP29 in Baku in 2024, they announced that their annual collective climate financing for low-income and middle-income countries was expected to reach 120 billion US dollars by 2030, and that they aimed to mobilise 65 billion US dollars from the private sector. This illustrates the growing importance of multilateral climate finance.

In addition to the core goal of at least 300 billion US dollars a year, the Baku Conference of the Parties also agreed to work towards a global funding goal of 1.3 trillion US dollars per year by 2035. This goal is to be funded mainly through green investments made by private enterprises and investors. With a view to implementation, the BMZ supported the drafting of the Baku to Belém Roadmap, which was presented at COP30 in Belém in November 2025.

This will require a full transformation of the global financial system. All finance flows must become consistent with climate neutrality and resilience. This includes private investment and foreign direct investment – in areas such as business takeovers, factory modernisation, grid expansion, and pension fund investments. The parties to the Paris Agreement have all committed themselves to this (Article 2.1(c) (External link)).