World: From Commitments to Communities: Rethinking Climate Finance: How civil society and community participation strengthen accountability, access and equity

Country: World Source: Oxfam Please refer to the attached file. SUMMARY Tackling the climate crisis requires urgent, collective action, and climate finance is essential to this effort. Under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Paris Agreement, developed countries have an obligation to provide assistance to developing countries to respond to climate change. The delivery of this international climate finance was no frivolous promise, but one that was endorsed by practically all governments of the world and reconfirmed time and again in successive global climate negotiations as well as the 2025 Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice, which confirms that developed countries have a legal obligation to provide sufficient climate finance. Climate finance is not only a matter of climate justice but also critical for enabling vulnerable countries to implement their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) and other climate plans. Despite these commitments, progress in the delivery of climate finance has been fragmented. At the international level, climate finance flows have been insufficient to meet developing countries’ needs and are made up primarily of loans that countries will eventually have to pay back. Climate finance is also often inaccessible, top-down and misaligned with local realities. At the national level, governments often fail to engage society meaningfully in the development and implementation of climate plans while, at the local level, civil society actors – particularly the most marginalized – may be excluded from decision-making, planning and budgeting processes, as well as from the benefits climate finance is intended to deliver. As climate impacts escalate, it is essential to ensure that ...

Original source: Relief Web