South Africa is pushing for both scale and certainty in climate finance, with a tilt toward adaptation that tackles droughts, floods and cyclones. Environment minister David Maynier set out the agenda at a Johannesburg event on Friday ahead of COP31 in Turkey.
He called for "ambitious and predictable replenishments of the Green Private Fund and the Global Environment Facility," and reaffirmed support for last year's COP deal to triple global adaptation finance to $120 billion by 2035. Pretoria also wants a formal process to track progress toward that number and will keep urging developed economies to raise their support for poorer nations.
Beginning in January last year with Donald Trump taking office as US president, and alongside European budget shifts toward defense, contributions to international climate institutions have been scaled down. Earlier this year, the UK informed the Green Climate Fund that it would slash its intended contribution by £815 million, or $1.09 billion, and last year the US pulled back $4 billion it had pledged.
South Africa has taken a vocal Global South stance in recent years, pressing the US, Europe and multilateral lenders for more climate finance. It is also contending with a heavy-emitting economy - the most carbon intensive in the Group of 20 - and it has missed initial goals for shutting some coal-fired power plants.
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Pretoria wants a share of revenue from a United Nations-supervised global carbon market directed to an international adaptation fund. According to Maynier, Pretoria has filed a $20 million application to the US's Loss and Damage Fund following floods earlier this year that damaged infrastructure and facilities in Kruger National Park.
Speaking for the environment department, deputy director-general Maesela Kekana said, "For the first time, all of us as the heads of delegations, are paying attention to these issues of adaptation, the global goal," He continued, "We will also be taking a position that says we need more resources for the fund for responding to loss and damage," and noted that South Africa is seeking support from facilities including "the Clean Investment Fund. You can see clearly there that South Africa put forward massive proposals."
The bottom line: COP31 negotiations will wrestle with who pays, how much and how reliably - particularly for adaptation and loss and damage. That shapes the pipeline and risk profile for projects tied to these funds, a real variable for anyone exposed to climate finance, emerging-market infrastructure or carbon markets.
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