How are the aid cuts impacting climate action?

Climate impacts are continuing to intensify. More severe storms, droughts, floods and heatwaves are inflicting devastation on the most vulnerable communities – those who also bear the least responsibility for the climate crisis.

But as the need for climate action becomes ever more urgent, international aid is retreating. USAID has been dismantled, whilst wealthy countries across Europe have slashed their aid budgets.

This episode asks what the aid cuts mean for the most climate-vulnerable countries. With fiscal space tightening and multilateralism on the decline, guests discuss how governments and international organisations can incentivise more private sector investment, scale up climate finance and channel it to where it’s most needed. We also hear what impact regional partnerships could have in delivering meaningful climate action in this new global landscape.

Guests

• Sara Pantuliano (Chief Executive, ODI Global)
• Hans Peter Lankes (Deputy Chief Executive, ODI Global)
• Sara Schonhardt (international climate reporter, Politico)
• Sir Nicholas Stern (Chair, Grantham Research Institute)
  
  

Related resources

• A Fair Share of Climate Finance (Project, ODI Global)
• Revitalising finance for adaptation: what role for the multilateral climate process? (Working paper, ODI Global)
• Vulnerable nations on the brink: the double shock of aid cuts and US tariff increases (Insight, ODI Global)
• The relationship between climate action and poverty reduction (Report, LSE)
• Small change? Our projections for the conflict blind spot in climate finance by 2030 (Insight, ODI Global)