2024 will see years of negotiations culminating in a New Collective Quantified Goal on climate finance (NCQG). The NCQG will replace a previous $100-billion-per-year climate finance goal which lacked any substantial focus on enhancing access to climate finance. The agreement of this new goal could be one of the most consequential catalysts for achieving global climate goals. However, it is not just the value or quantum of this goal that needs to be considered. Its ‘access features’- who receives finance, how and when- will be key to determining the fairness and equity of future climate financing.

Currently, both recipients and providers face many challenges in accessing to climate finance.

Analysing both providers' and recipients' perspectives, this paper explores options to formalise access mechanisms for climate finance under the NCQG. It makes a series of recommendations for how Parties can overcome past challenges to access the finance needed for ambitious climate action, including establishing transparency arrangements on access, simplifying access across all finance channels and establishing a timeline for achieving access-related features. As negotiations reach their peak, setting an overall direction to enhance access will be essential to ensuring those who need climate finance can access it through a just and transparent process.

The NCQG negotiations provide an opportunity to do better. In finalising the new goal, tangible measures within the goal's 'access features' must be agreed upon to address well-understood challenges and build trust between providers and recipients. The solutions must make things easier for recipients. After all, even a goal providing trillions of dollars is of little use if it cannot be accessed by those who need it.

Report by the Overseas Development Institute