The European Union is preparing to double its 2019 climate finance commitments for vulnerable countries at the upcoming COP30 summit in Belém, Brazil, according to a leaked Council document obtained by Euronews.
The funding, which targets climate adaptation in the Global South, would represent a major step up from the €23.2bn contributed by the EU and member states in 2019. However, it still falls short of demands from developing nations, many of whom are calling for funding to be tripled. Africa alone requires $25bn (€21bn) annually to adapt to worsening climate impacts, Rwanda’s environment minister Jeanne d’Arc Mujawamariya said earlier this month.
The leak outlines that EU leaders back additional measures to ensure a “just transition” for communities losing jobs or livelihoods during the global shift away from fossil fuels. Proposed policies include expanding domestic carbon pricing, tackling carbon leakage, and increasing the share of global emissions covered by carbon pricing systems.
The bloc’s pledge comes as low-lying Pacific Island nations such as Tuvalu, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, and the Maldives face existential threats from rising seas. Elsewhere in the Global South, adaptation efforts focus on safeguarding food security, infrastructure, and livelihoods against increasingly severe floods, droughts, and other climate-driven hazards.
More than 170 countries have adopted national climate adaptation strategies, according to a 2019 analysis by the London School of Economics’ Grantham Research Institute, but progress remains uneven and underfunded.
Despite its new financial push, the EU has yet to finalise its updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) for 2035 — the central pledge under the Paris Agreement. The leaked document calls on other nations to accelerate their own NDC submissions, warning that without concrete investment plans and financing platforms, progress will stall.
Under UN rules, parties to the UNFCCC were expected to submit 2035 NDCs by 23 September 2025. As of that date, only 26 countries had done so, with 84 more expected but missing the deadline. This sets the stage for difficult negotiations in Belém, where adaptation financing and the formalisation of the Global Goal on Adaptation are expected to dominate the agenda.
