World leaders should put climate finance on par with defence spending as a strategic security priority, president-designate of the UN Cop 31 climate summit Murat Kurum said today.
Kurum called on governments to commit greater resources "to clean energy, electrification, resilient cities and green industry."
"Nato countries have embarked on a major transformation that will see defence-related investment rise to as much as 5pc of GDP," he said. "We expect to see ambition on a similar scale when it comes to climate security."
Kurum, who is Turkey's environment minister, will oversee Cop 31 in November, in Antalya, Turkey. Finance is a key priority for Cop 31, the Turkish presidency said.
"Our climate finance needs stand at between $7.5 trillion and $9 trillion. Yet the world currently invests only around $1.9 trillion", Kurum said. He described the disparity as a chasm.
"We must all stop treating climate finance as a cost. We must recognise it for what it truly is: a strategic investment made today to avert far greater economic and social losses tomorrow," Kurum said.
Several studies have found the cost of inaction on climate change substantially outweighs the alternative.
Global climate finance was $2.01 trillion in 2024, and preliminary estimates indicate this rose to around $2.06 trillion in 2025, non-profit Climate Policy Initiative said in June. This includes global domestic and international climate finance, from public and private sources, and finance from household purchases of renewable technology.
Climate finance, for global decarbonisation and adaptation to the effects of climate change, is often the central issue at Cop summits. UN climate body the UNFCCC works from a 1992 list of developed and developing countries, with the former expected to lead in mobilising climate finance for the latter. Many countries argue the designation is outdated, and UNFCCC-classified developing nations have in recent years publicised their own climate finance delivery.
Almost 200 countries agreed in 2024 at Cop 29 on a goal that will see developed countries "take the lead" on providing at least $300 bn/yr in climate finance to developing nations by 2035.
The Cop 31 presidency will launch an initiative that aims to speed finance deployment — dubbed Bridge — to help countries "turn their climate and development priorities into finance-ready portfolios of projects", it said.
