United Nations Climate Change Executive Secretary, Simon Stiell, has urged countries to turn existing climate finance commitments into actual funding for developing countries, saying meeting financial targets alone would not necessarily address their needs.

Mr Stiell made the call on Friday at the seventh biennial high-level ministerial dialogue on climate finance at the 31st UN Climate Change Conference (COP31) in Antalya, Türkiye.

He said countries had established new climate finance targets at COP29, including $300 billion annually by 2035, with developed countries taking the lead, and a broader goal of scaling up financing from all sources to $1.3 trillion annually within the same period.

He said the Baku-to-Belém Roadmap provided a pathway to achieving the targets but stressed that it must be translated into reality.

Mr Stiell said many developing countries remained trapped in a cycle of debt, climate disasters and high borrowing costs, leaving them with fewer resources to invest in climate resilience.

He explained that the threat of floods, fires, storms and droughts increased borrowing costs even before disasters occurred, while falling revenues and rising recovery expenses after disasters further worsened their debt situations.

According to him, climate finance must move beyond funding individual projects to supporting broader economic transformation that strengthens national institutions, improves investment conditions and attracts more affordable capital.

He outlined four priorities for improving climate finance delivery, including making funding more responsive to countries’ debt situations, simplifying access to financial resources, strengthening domestic financial institutions and improving coordination among countries, climate funds and development banks.

Mr Stiell stressed that funding conditions must reflect countries’ financial circumstances, adding that grants and highly concessional financing remained particularly important for least developed countries, small island developing states and other vulnerable economies.

He also called for simpler funding procedures and reduced administrative requirements, urging international financial institutions to strengthen existing national systems rather than bypass them.

The UN climate chief said national treasuries, local governments, development banks and other domestic financial institutions should play a central role in accessing and distributing climate finance.

He added that international cooperation must bring together financing, technology transfer and capacity-building to translate countries’ development priorities into investments that improve resilience and people’s lives.

Mr Stiell said the ministerial dialogues, established in 2013, should help advance a new approach to climate finance in which development investments build stronger economies and a better future for all countries.