SIDE EVENT F4D: Transforming Climate Finance as a tool for advancing the SDGs: Lessons learned from Latin America and South Africa, Seville, Spain

Background: At the 4th Financing for Development (FfD) Conference, the international community will work toward adopting a joint outcome document to guide the future implementation of the FfD agenda. This document aims to strengthen policy coherence and alignment with the Paris Agreement, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and other internationally agreed development frameworks. For many developing countries, this means reaffirming the right to development and national policy space—as emphasized since Monterrey—while also advancing international reforms to address systemic challenges and structural disparities. Key priorities include scaling up domestic resource mobilization, catalyzing additional financing, and expanding the role of regional and national public development banks.

During preparatory sessions, several governments from the Global South emphasized that progress on the SDGs depends not only on domestic policy efforts but also on a more equitable international financial architecture and robust global public financing. Brazil has taken a leadership role in this space through the G20 and in the lead-up to COP30, notably with the launch of the COP30 Circle of Finance Ministers—an important initiative under Brazil’s COP30 presidency to support the development of the Baku to Belém Roadmap, aimed at mobilizing USD 1.3 trillion for climate action.
Addressing climate change in line with the Paris Agreement requires an unprecedented mobilization of resources to build a just, climate-resilient, and carbon-neutral global economy by mid-century. Climate finance is a cornerstone of this transition, ensuring both adaptation and deep decarbonization efforts are effective and inclusive. Without robust, inclusive, and consistent financing approaches, the credibility and feasibility of net-zero targets remain at risk. Furthermore, current climate finance mechanisms risk reinforcing existing inequalities. In a world grappling with multiple, overlapping crises, financing solutions must be systemic, integrated, and equitable.

This session will convene government representatives, experts, and researchers to share recent climate finance experiences and insights from Latin America and Africa. It will explore the key barriers hindering the scale-up of equitable climate finance, including gender-blind approaches, and examine how these issues intersect with all pillars of the FfD process and the broader COP30 agenda. The session will put forward actionable solutions to ensure that climate finance contributes meaningfully to gender equality, accelerates SDG implementation, and advances the goals of the Paris Agreement.

Proposed agenda:

Part 1: Exploring opportunities for increased sovereign finance and climate finance innovations for a just transition  (40´)
Carola Mejía, Climate Justice, Transitions and Amazon Coordinator, LATINDADD
Herman Kamil, Debt Management Unit, Ministry of Economy and Finance, Uruguay
Carolina Grottera, Director of the Executive Secretariat of the Ministry of Finance, Brazil 
Mariama Williams, Senior Strategic Advisor, Global Afro-descendant Climate Justice Collaborative (GADCJC), 
International Development Research Centre, IDRC of Canada.

Part 2: Development banks, high-impact climate change mitigation and adaptation and green industrial policies (40’)
Nimrod Zalk, Chief Research Officer, Climate and Development, Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance (NMSG), South Africa
Luis Miguel Galindo, Professor, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Mexico

Moderation: João Carlos Ferraz, Brazil, South American Network on Applied Economics/Instituto de Economía, Universidade Federal de Rio de Janeiro (IE/UFRJ).