{"id":5851,"date":"2026-06-15T13:49:47","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T13:49:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.powershiftafrica.org\/blogs\/fight-for-the-soul-of-public-finance-returns-to-bonn-sm"},"modified":"2026-10-12T13:33:33","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T13:33:33","slug":"fight-for-the-soul-of-public-finance-returns-to-bonn-sm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/powershiftafrica.org\/fr\/blogs\/fight-for-the-soul-of-public-finance-returns-to-bonn-sm\/","title":{"rendered":"Fight for the soul of public finance returns to SB64"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Delegates attending the launch of the roadmap and priorities for COP31 at the Bonn Climate Conference in Bonn, Germany. | PSA Media<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n\n\n\n

BY SAADA MOHAMED<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The centrality of public finance for climate action is now more critical and timelier than ever for Global South nations.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the global community gathers for the\u00a0June\u00a0climate talks in Bonn this\u00a0year, the negotiation halls\u00a0are witnessing a familiar pattern of intense friction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At SB64 this year, climate-vulnerable countries and rich nations have renewed the fight for the future of public climate finance as the soul of the Paris Agreement. This tension revives memories of last year\u2019s agenda fight at SB62 that famously delayed the 2025 Bonn session by two days, before spilling over to COP30 in Belem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Bonn, finance discussions are informed by the \u2018\u2018Mutir\u00e3o<\/em>\u2019\u2019 decision of COP30, which\u00a0established\u00a0a two-year Work Programme\u00a0on climate finance,\u00a0including\u00a0Article 9.1 in the context of the entire Article 9 of the Paris Agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Article 9.1 of the Paris Agreement\u00a0explicitly requires developed countries to provide public and grant-based financial resources to\u00a0assist\u00a0developing nations\u00a0in accelerating climate\u00a0action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For years, developing\u00a0country\u00a0blocs have expressed deep frustration with the\u00a0dwindling political will\u00a0from wealthy nations to honour these legal obligations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\u00a02026 Bonn\u00a0discussions have been heated yet again, with Parties\u00a0largely rehashing\u00a0their long-standing divisions on the work programme while debating the scope of the mandate, the nature of finance, and the process of governance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For climate-vulnerable countries, the red lines have been firmly anchored in the following non\u2011negotiable positions.\u00a0They\u00a0have repeatedly\u00a0maintained\u00a0that the scope of the work programme should\u00a0preserve the centrality of public finance under Article 9.1 as a legal obligation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is critical to ensure that climate finance is not treated as a voluntary gesture or charitable contribution but as a legal obligation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As such, the immediate priority\u00a0of developing countries remains\u00a0enhancing predictability, adequacy, and transparency of public finance provision and delivery as a cornerstone of climate action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response, developed countries\u00a0have continued with their\u00a0dangerous attempt to dilute their existing obligations while shifting responsibility. They\u00a0have continuously argued\u00a0that the scope should include mobilisation of finance from a variety of sources, including private sector actors and even voluntary contributions from developing countries themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While acknowledging the role of\u00a0private finance, developing countries\u00a0have throughout the session maintained that private finance merely complements rather than substitutes public, grant-based funding essential for\u00a0climate adaptation and loss\u00a0and damage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most importantly, the revival\u00a0of the public finance fight at SB64 is fuelled by the alarming reality of funding cuts occasioned by the ongoing deprioritisation of the climate agenda by the rich countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just before the Bonn talks, France and Germany announced funding cuts to multilateral climate funds.\u00a0Developing countries have repeatedly cited the withdrawal of $4 billion and $1.1bn pledges by the United States and the UK from the GCF, respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There are also concerns regarding the\u00a0Adaptation Fund operating\u00a0on less than half of its\u00a0minimum\u00a0annual target of $300 million for the third consecutive year. This is a 27 percent drop in the current Global Environment Facility replenishment cycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These downward trajectories signal growing risks to the successful delivery of the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG). The trends have to be reversed immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Developing countries have\u00a0demanded a shift from dialogues\u00a0to\u00a0concrete outputs and\u00a0action as a path forward.\u00a0They warn against repetitive and unconstructive dialogues and technical reports, calling instead for a Party-driven process that leads to concrete decisions at the political level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This includes an operational action plan,\u00a0with concrete milestones and accountability mechanisms, that ensures\u00a0predictable and accessible finance for\u00a0vulnerable\u00a0countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The centrality of public finance for climate action is now more critical and timelier than ever for Global South nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restoring trust in the multilateral climate process depends entirely on whether developed nations will treat their financial\u00a0obligations\u00a0with the same urgency as the climate impacts currently battering the world\u2019s most vulnerable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saada Mohamed is a Climate Finance Advisor at Power Shift Africa\u00a0<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The centrality of public finance for climate action is now more critical and timelier than ever for Global South nations.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":5852,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[26],"topic":[],"class_list":["post-5851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blogs","tag-climate-finance"],"acf":{"url":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/powershiftafrica.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/powershiftafrica.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/powershiftafrica.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powershiftafrica.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powershiftafrica.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5851"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/powershiftafrica.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8202,"href":"https:\/\/powershiftafrica.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5851\/revisions\/8202"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powershiftafrica.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/powershiftafrica.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powershiftafrica.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powershiftafrica.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5851"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powershiftafrica.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=5851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}