If the Paris Agreement was about shared ambition, Belém must be about shared architecture, where finance meets fairness and growth meets governance

As the world huddles in Belém this November for the 30^th Conference of the Parties (COP30) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the air in the Amazon will carry a layer of more tension than optimism. As the Conference will be welcoming the tenth anniversary of the Paris Agreement, in a warmer world, with more than 80 per cent coral reefs globally affected in the last two years and the Amazon showing visible signs of stress, a familiar debate has begun yet again on what the conference is meant to accelerate. That is the delivery of the architecture of climate finance, for what experts believe has favoured mitigation over survival, with adaptation remaining the orphan child of global climate action.

United Nations Environment Programme data shows that developing countries will require US $310-365 billion annually by 2035 for adaptation yet have received only US $26 billion in international public flows in 2023, a figure less by US$2 billion than the previous year. This stagnation persists despite COP29’s pledge in Baku to raise US $300 billion per year by 2035. Even the recent UNCTAD’s Geneva Consensus Report (2025) warns that climate finance remains fragmented across dozens of channels, trapping poorer nations into debt dependence and administrative bottlenecks. However, the International Court of Justice’s Advisory Opinion delivered in July has reiterated the binding obligations of developed nations towards developing countries in terms of finance and support, strengthening the legal imperative of the expectation.

Building a Global South climate finance architecture

A South-South financing model is the need of the hour, as the next phase of climate finance requires the Global South to take the lead and create scalable models. Across the Global South, outlines of novel climate finance architecture are already taking shape. In Indonesia, its Energy Transition Mechanism has used blended finance combining concessional and commercial capital to facilitate early retirement of coal-fired power plants, making it investor-friendly and reducing capital cost. Innovative approaches have also been seen in Kenya’s community-driven carbon markets and South Africa’s Just Energy Transition Partnership showing how domestic regulation, digital verification and private sector participation can align around common goals. 

This proves why investor trust is important for they look for systems that can manage risk and prove delivery. The NDB’s guarantee fund within BRICS and the World Bank’s Multilateral Guarantee Agency have shown how political assurance can lower costs and attract long-term capital. The takeaway is thus that we need to adapt and build models which reflect both local priorities and also meet global expectations of reliability and auditability and thereby create frameworks that make resilience investable.

Global South at a unique cusp

With the United States withdrawing again from the Paris Agreement and China signalling only cautious ambition, the space for leadership is open, posing an opportunity for the Global South. For the Global South to move from concept to coordination, it will need a country or a group of countries that have regulatory depth, implementation reach, and the ability to blend fiscal policy, digital infrastructure and community governance into one continuum. India is one such country. The Union Ministry of Finance’s draft Climate Finance Taxonomy already establishes a structured framework for classifying and tracking climate aligned investments, ensuring a framework to begin with for green capital being tied to verifiable outcomes. Moreover, India’s GIFT City’s regulations have resulted in 30 per cent of its issued bonds being green bonds providing a ready platform for listing and trading necessary instruments, supporting India’s ambitious Panchamrit targets. Such steps add to both legitimacy and long -term direction. 

Equally critical is India’s ability to operationalise such a framework at the grassroots. Under the Biological Diversity Act, 2022 more than 276,000 Biodiversity Management Committees (BMC) have been constituted across its local bodies, with members from tribal communities, civil society organisations, and technical experts to conserve and document biodiversity. With this foundation, what remains is to connect it with the country’s evolving climate finance architecture. Such integration would not only reinvent the system, it would strengthen what is already working, with the BMC becoming the natural local interface for channeling adaption funds and ensuring that resources move through transparent, verifiable pathways, standing as a veritable model for the Global South and investors of what a community rooted model of climate resilience can look like built over years of democratic and ecological stewardship.

From Forest finance to a New G2

With Brazil expected to unveil the Tropical Forests Forever Facility this COP30 to raise a total of US $125 billion, the moment calls for greater inclusivity, in many ways, a new G2, not the “Group of Two”, but a “Global South-Global South” partnership that defines this century’s climate agenda. Together the Global South countries can transform the idea of solidarity into structure and emerge with a shared framework that merges local governance and finance flows turning the growing demand of a trackable, scalable and an implementable climate finance architecture into a reality.

With pre-budget consultations underway, India has the opportunity to further signal that climate finance remains an integral part of its economic strategy, and to emerge with discussions on fiscal incentives, digital infrastructure, and grassroots institutions, showing that India can demonstrate how the Global South finances its own future, with systems that the Global North can join, not dictate.

If the Paris Agreement was about shared ambition, Belém must be about shared architecture, where finance meets fairness and growth meets governance. The world no longer needs new pledges, it needs a new G2 for climate finance, grounded in trust and ready to deliver.

Pramit Lahiri, Senior Associate at Ardent Co., a policy consulting firm; former LAMP Fellow 2024-25 and policy advisor to Members of Parliament.

Abhay Tomar, Research Associate, Office of Member of Parliament; Director, PALIPRAYAS Foundation, and former LAMP fellow 2024-25

Views expressed are the authors’ own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth