The NCQG must strengthen quality and access in climate finance

A policy briefing by Illari Aragon (Climate Justice Policy Lead) provides analysis and key messages on Christian Aid’s top priorities for the New Collective Quantified Goal (NQCG) ahead of the next climate session in June.

What's at stake?

Climate finance is a central point in climate negotiations in 2024. Deliberations on the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) kicked off in 2022 and are set to conclude at this year's 29th Conference of the Parties (COP) in Baku, Azerbaijan. COP29 must deliver a new finance target that meets the needs of poor nations and reboots trust in multilateralism.

Agreeing the NCQG quantum will be one of the hardest issues to solve at COP29, but setting a dollar figure itself will not be enough, and however high it is, it will not be sufficient. The quality of climate finance matters too as we seek to establish an impactful goal – one that strengthens access and quality in climate finance going forward. The need to prevent climate finance from exacerbating the debt burden in developing countries has been a recurring message throughout NCQG discussions in 2022, 2023 and 2024. Similarly, many developing countries reiterated persistent challenges in accessing climate finance. Hence, access and quality remain chief areas of concern for developing nations and they require amplified attention as NCQG negotiations enter their final stage.  

Having unpacked the most contentious issues in NCQG debates in our previous policy brief COP 28: time to harness progress and shape an inclusive new goal on finance, this second paper focuses on quality and access considerations.