COP31: Developing countries push to turn climate finance commitments into action as talks hit familiar divisions

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Climate finance remains the most contentious issue in international climate negotiations. This year, as COP31, the 31st UN climate summit gets underway in Antal ...

Climate finance remains the most contentious issue in international climate negotiations. This year, as COP31, the 31st UN climate summit gets underway in Antalya, Türkiye, two rounds of negotiations on the new agenda item on climate finance have already taken place. But discussions over its scope and procedural future remains unresolved.

Formally known as the “Climate Finance Work Programme on Article 9.1 in the context of Article 9 as a whole” (CFWP), it is regarded as a potential forum for high-level, political scrutiny of developed countries’ climate finance commitments to developing countries, including those under the new climate finance goal agreed upon at COP29 in Baku in 2024.

The CFWP was adopted as an agenda item for negotiation on day one at COP31 without significance opposition. However, developed countries including the EU noted “deep concern” about its transition from a “work programme”, or non-negotiated forum for discussion, into a formal “agenda item” with political weight and a place in the official negotiating process.

Some new demands, including developing countries’ call to triple adaptation finance, have also featured in the discussions.

The CFWP was originally proposed by Bolivia, for consideration at the mid-year climate talks in 2025, on behalf of the Like Minded Developing Countries (LMDC) bloc. Its central argument is that the core obligation of developed countries to provide financial resources to developing countries remains unfulfilled even “a decade after the Paris Agreement” was adopted. Article 9.1 of the Paris Agreement explicitly establishes developed countries’ legal obligation to provide climate finance to developing countries.

This obligation has been pursued through the US $100 billion goal, an outcome that developing countries considered to be a top-down decision at COP15 in Copenhagen in 2009.

The LMDC submission sought to hold developed countries accountable for inadequate follow through on their finance commitments.

At COP30 in…

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