Next week, representatives from around the world will gather at COP28 in Dubai to respond to a first-of-its-kind report. Three years and over 170,000 pages of submissions in the making, the Global Stocktake draws on the latest scientific research to assess whether the world is on track – or not – to avert a climate catastrophe.
The results are mixed. Since the Paris Agreement came into force in 2016, climate action has successfully been driven to the top of the global agenda. Collective efforts to cut emissions are working, with updated forecasting already predicting a measurably less severe rise in temperature.
But that is not nearly enough. In the next seven years, we need to slash emissions by 43% to reach our shared climate goals. This will require action at an unprecedented pace and scale.
With 14 key findings accompanied by clear, actionable recommendations, the Global Stocktake charts a course for exactly that. Three recommendations are key: scaling up breakthrough energy technologies, expanding smart funding, and ensuring a transition that leaves no one behind.
In all three areas, the Climate Investment Funds (CIF) has been piloting, proving and taking cutting-edge solutions to scale, across 400 projects and counting.
Key Finding 16: Existing cleaner technologies need to be rapidly deployed, together with accelerated innovation, development and transfer of new technologies.
If the climate emergency is to be met head-on, promising responses need to be tested and proven solutions ramped up.
That’s why accelerating the development and deployment of transformative technologies is at the heart of the CIF business model. We step in and de-risk pioneering climate action in developing countries, to get critical projects off the ground. Our programs support breakthrough energy storage solutions, expand energy access, decarbonize industries, reverse ecological degradation, and help build the cities of tomorrow.
Early CIF investment has helped launch Mexico’s fledgling wind power industry. In the Maldives, our package of support—in collaboration with the World Bank—has super-charged green investment, slashed clean energy prices and catalyzed new solar and storage technologies.
Key Finding 14: Scaled-up mobilization of support for climate action in developing countries entails strategically deploying international public finance, which remains a prime enabler for action, and continuing to enhance effectiveness, including access, ownership and impacts.
CIF lowers the risk and cost of climate financing, by providing large-scale, long-term funding, where it is most needed. Our $5bn Clean Technology Fund is expected to remove 79.5 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent annually, through a partnership approach refined in 29 developing countries. Enabled by our highly concessional funding, 371 million hectares of forests have become more sustainable, and a new, one-of-a-kind investment platform will help transform one of the highest-emitting sectors: coal.
But the Global Stocktake recognizes that public finance alone will not close the funding gap. That’s why our Technical Assistance Facility empowers partner countries to create the conditions needed for private-sector investment. Projects seeded by CIF go on to attract big market players and unlock billions in climate co-financing, at a ratio of 1:8—one quarter of which comes from the private sector—demonstrating the demand for pipelines of finance-ready products. In Morocco, $149.75 million in CIF finance mobilized 2.4 billion USD needed to build the largest solar energy complex in the world, the Noor Concentrated Solar Plant.
Key Finding 7: Just transitions can support more robust and equitable mitigation outcomes, with tailored approaches addressing different contexts.
The Global Stocktake recognizes that there can be no energy transition without the communities at the front lines of the climate crisis. But these same communities have in the last decade received only 1% of international climate finance.
We have already taken steps to change that. Our Dedicated Grant Mechanism for Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities has allocated $70 million USD to benefit more than 250,000 local community members in 12 countries.
We have also been ahead of the curve in providing low-cost, predictable funding for projects that build fairness and inclusivity into their design. This year, Colombia became the first partner in our game-changing Renewable Energy Integration program—receiving a multi-year package of investments aligned with the country’s own vision for equitable change. “We’re making sure that this isn’t just a technical transition,” says Javier Campillo, head of Colombia’s agency for energy solutions, “but that it’s also a just energy transition.”
Projects like Colombia’s demonstrate that energy transitions should—and can—go beyond cutting emissions: creating green jobs, empowering women, conserving forests, revitalizing urban landscapes, and boosting crop yields.
The Global Stocktake makes it clear that the next round of Nationally Determined Contributions, slated for 2025, need to be more ambitious—and translated into real action on the ground. Morocco, Mexico and the Maldives clearly demonstrate the transformational change that can be unleashed through smart, equitable, and flexible funding. It’s time to support many more like them.