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Climate change funding has become one of the biggest fault lines in global politics. BRICS countries and many other developing economies argue that the Global North should provide far more support for clean energy, adaptation, and loss-and-damage recovery in countries that contributed least to the crisis but face some of its harshest effects.
The demand is not simply to ‘send money’. It is a push to reshape climate finance so it is larger, fairer, easier to access, and less likely to deepen debt.
Why Is BRICS Demanding $1 Trillion From the Global North?
BRICS is pressing for a much larger flow of climate finance because developing countries say the existing funding model falls far below the real cost of cutting emissions and protecting people from climate impacts.
At COP29 in November 2024, countries agreed to raise the core developed-country-led finance goal to at least $300 billion a year by 2035. They also called on all actors to scale finance for developing countries to at least $1.3 trillion a year by 2035.
The gap between $300 billion and more than $1 trillion explains the politics. For BRICS and the wider Global South, the issue involves historical responsibility, practical capacity, and development space.
Many emerging and lower-income economies still need roads, housing, power grids, hospitals, food systems, and jobs. Asking them to decarbonise while also paying for floods, heat, drought, and storms can feel like asking them to finance a crisis they did not create at the same scale as early industrial powers.
The phrase ‘$1 trillion from the Global North’ is therefore best understood as a demand for climate change funding on a new scale, rather than as a simple one-time bill. It includes public finance, concessional loans, climate grants, private capital mobilised through public tools, multilateral development bank reform, and new sources such as levies or taxes.
The World Resources Institute noted during the COP29 negotiations that independent experts placed developing countries’ external climate finance needs at around $1 trillion annually by 2030 and $1.3 trillion by 2035.
The Old $100 Billion Promise Changed the Debate
The modern fight over climate finance did not appear overnight. In 2009, developed countries pledged to mobilise $100 billion a year by 2020 for climate action in developing countries.
That promise became a symbol of trust. If wealthy nations could not deliver a relatively modest pledge, developing countries questioned why they should believe larger transition commitments.
According to OECD tracking, developed countries first exceeded the goal in 2022, providing and mobilising $115.9 billion for developing countries. Updated OECD figures later reported $132.8 billion in 2023 and $136.7 billion in 2024, meaning the old goal was surpassed for three consecutive years.
However, meeting the target late did not end the controversy. Developing countries have questioned not only the amount but also the quality of the funding.
A dollar of grant-based support for coastal protection is not equivalent to a dollar of market-rate lending for a solar project. When climate change funding arrives mainly as debt, vulnerable countries may become less able to invest in resilience over time.
What Is the Money Supposed to Pay For?
The demand for larger climate finance covers several overlapping needs. Some focus on preventing future emissions, while others address damage already underway.
The most useful way to understand the trillion-dollar figure is to break it into practical categories:
- Renewable Energy Funding: Solar, wind, geothermal energy, storage, grid upgrades, and transmission systems that help countries grow without locking in new fossil fuel infrastructure.
- Adaptation Finance: Sea walls, drought-resistant agriculture, early warning systems, water security, heat planning, and climate-resilient health systems.
- Loss and Damage Support: Funding for recovery when climate impacts destroy homes, crops, infrastructure, and livelihoods.
- Climate Change Research Funding: Better local data, climate modelling, crop science, disaster risk mapping, and practical innovation suited to regional conditions.
- Green Funding for Industry: Cleaner steel, cement, transport, cooling, buildings, and manufacturing.
- Nature and Land-Use Finance: Forest protection, restoration, soil health, and biodiversity-linked projects.
This mix matters because countries do not experience climate change as a single problem. A coastal state may need cyclone shelters, mangrove restoration, grid upgrades, and insurance reform at the same time.
A fast-growing economy may need renewable energy funding and industrial transition support while expanding electricity access.
The BRICS Position Is About Power, Not Only Payment
BRICS countries are not all the same. The group includes major emitters, fossil fuel producers, fast-growing industrial economies, and countries with significant clean-energy ambitions.
That diversity makes its climate politics complicated. Yet the bloc’s common message is that global financial rules still favour wealthy countries and make green development more expensive in the Global South.
In 2025, BRICS leaders backed a climate finance framework and supported the push to mobilise $1.3 trillion for the Global South, while also calling for international financial system reform.
This shows why the debate goes beyond climate Ministries. It touches debt, credit ratings, currency risk, development banks, trade rules, and who gets to define ‘responsible’ economic policy.
For many developing countries, borrowing for climate resilience can be more expensive than borrowing in wealthier economies because investors price in higher risk. As a result, the same solar farm, flood barrier, or grid project may cost more to finance in places where investment is most urgently needed.
Sustainable investment can flow, but it often needs guarantees, concessional capital, or policy support to make projects bankable.
Who Should Pay for Climate Change?
The simplest answer is that countries with the greatest historical responsibility and financial capacity are expected to lead, while broader public and private sources will also be needed to reach a trillion-dollar scale.
Under the UN climate process, developed countries have long held a special role in providing and mobilising finance. However, COP29 also recognised the need to scale funding from public, private, bilateral, multilateral, and alternative sources.
The dispute concerns how far that responsibility should extend. The Global North argues that some emerging economies are now wealthy or high-emitting enough to contribute more.
China and other developing-country powers generally resist being reclassified as obligated donors, even if they provide South-South finance voluntarily. This remains one of the hardest diplomatic challenges in climate finance.
A fair system will likely need several layers:
- Public Funding From Developed Countries: Support for adaptation, grants, and highly concessional finance.
- Multilateral Development Bank Lending: Better terms and greater scale.
- Private Sustainable Investment: Capital mobilised through guarantees, co-investment, and risk reduction.
- Climate Change Grants: Support for the poorest and most vulnerable countries, especially where loans are inappropriate.
- New Revenue Tools: Shipping, aviation, fossil fuel, or wealth-related levies where politically feasible.
- Domestic Investment: Funding by developing countries, supported rather than crowded out by international finance.
No single source can pay for everything. Without public leadership, private capital is unlikely to move quickly enough or reach places where commercial returns remain uncertain.
Quality Matters as Much as Quantity
A trillion-dollar headline can hide weak finance if the money is difficult to access, creates excessive debt, or fails to reflect local needs.
The World Resources Institute highlighted access, concessionality, adaptation, and debt as core quality issues in the COP29 finance debate.
High-quality climate finance should be:
- Predictable: Countries can plan multi-year projects instead of chasing short funding windows.
- Affordable: Grants and concessional finance receive priority where repayment would worsen debt stress.
- Accessible: Application systems are simpler, faster, and realistic for smaller administrations.
- Balanced: Mitigation, adaptation, and loss and damage all receive attention.
- Locally Useful: Funding supports national climate plans and community needs rather than only donor priorities.
- Transparent: Recipients and contributors can track what counts as climate finance and assess its impact.
This is especially important for climate change research funding and adaptation work, which may not produce quick commercial returns.
Better flood maps, seed trials, public health readiness, and disaster early warning systems can save lives, but they do not always generate revenue that attracts investors. That is why grants and public finance remain central.
The Road From Pledge to Project
Even if negotiators agree on a larger number, the real test is whether the money reaches projects that reduce risk and improve lives.
Climate finance can become stuck between global promises and local implementation. A government may announce green funding, but a city still needs technical staff, permits, feasibility studies, land agreements, and long-term maintenance plans.
A practical climate finance pipeline usually needs:
- A clear national or local climate plan
- Credible project preparation
- Transparent procurement
- Community consultation
- Realistic operation and maintenance budgets
- Safeguards for land, labour, and Indigenous rights
- Measurement of emissions, resilience, and social benefits
This is where BRICS countries could play a significant role beyond diplomacy. They can expand South-South cooperation, share low-cost clean technology, finance regional infrastructure, and build institutions that help convert sustainable investment into actual projects.
However, that does not erase the central BRICS argument: wealthy countries still need to lead on climate change funding because they benefited most from carbon-intensive growth.
What This Means for Investors, Policymakers, and Citizens
For investors, the trillion-dollar debate signals that green markets in the Global South are not niche opportunities. Power grids, storage, clean transport, water systems, resilient agriculture, and efficient buildings all require capital.
The challenge is to match sustainable investment with fair risk-sharing so that projects serve public goals rather than simply extracting returns.
For policymakers, the lesson is that climate finance must be designed like infrastructure, not charity. It needs institutions, standards, accountability, and long-term commitments.
Countries that want private capital to participate must also use public tools wisely, particularly guarantees, first-loss capital, and concessional finance.
For citizens, the debate matters because climate costs are already appearing through insurance, food prices, disaster recovery, migration pressure, and public budgets.
The question is not whether the world will pay for climate change. The question is whether it will pay in advance through prevention and resilience or later through damage, instability, and emergency response.
The Takeaway
BRICS’ trillion-dollar demand challenges the old climate finance bargain. The bloc argues that the Global North must move from symbolic pledges to funding at the scale required for clean development, adaptation, and recovery.
COP29’s $300 billion goal was a step, but the broader $1.3 trillion target shows how much larger the real financing conversation has become.
The future of climate change funding will depend on both quantity and quality. More money is necessary, but so are better terms, faster access, more climate change grants, stronger renewable energy funding, and smarter green funding that supports development rather than deepening debt.
If the world gets this right, climate finance can become more than a negotiation line item. It can become a bridge between climate justice and practical climate action.
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