As the global climate summit COP30 convenes in Belém, Brazil (10–21 November 2025) un-der the umbrella of the Paris Agreement, the issue of climate finance stands out as perhaps the most critical test for trust between developed and developing nations. For decades, de-veloping countries have stressed that without reliable, sufficient and accessible funds, miti-gation and adaptation efforts, let alone recovery from climate disasters, remain wishful thinking. This year’s COP is all about whether world leaders will do more than talk and ac-tually help. The roots of the crisis lie in a long-standing commitment that was poorly deli-vered. As part of the Paris Agreement and earlier UNFCCC accords, developed countries agreed to mobilize US$100 billion per year by 2020 to help developing countries with miti-gation and adaptation. Yet by 2020, the goal remained unmet, a failure widely acknowledged by both developed and developing parties. However, there was progress in 2022: a report by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) found that developed countries had “provided and mobilized” a total of US$115.9 billion for climate finance in that year, thereby technically exceeding the $100 billion annual target for the first time.

Despite that milestone, critics argue the achievement is misleading in many respects. First, much of the finance remains skewed toward mitigation (e.g., clean energy), while adapta-tion, vital for climate-vulnerable countries, remains underfunded. Second, much of the money........

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