After US cuts cash, Green Climate Fund head urges others to step up

Mafalda Duarte stresses the strategic and economic importance of keeping money flowing to developing countries after Trump cancelled $4bn pledge to the fund

The head of the UN’s biggest climate fund has urged world leaders not to step back from channelling “critical” climate finance to the developing world after the United States reneged on $4 billion in pledges to the Green Climate Fund (GCF).

Mafalda Duarte, the GCF’s executive director, said on Monday that investing in efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions and help vulnerable countries adapt to a warming planet benefits those who provide the money as much as the recipients.

“We live in an interconnected world: no country, not even the richest ones, can afford to treat climate change solely as a domestic matter,” she wrote in a LinkedIn post. “Its most severe consequences—including conflict and migration—will ripple across the globe unless action is taken where it matters most: in developing countries.”

Trump’s $4bn pullback

Duarte’s comments come days after it emerged that US President Donald Trump’s government had officially rescinded its outstanding pledges to the GCF made under previous administrations, as first reported by Politico. No other country has ever cancelled its promised contributions to the UN climate fund before.

Barack Obama and Joe Biden committed $3 billion each to the GCF in 2014 and 2023 respectively – but only $2 billion of the promised money was delivered. One of the main reasons behind the failure to fulfill the pledge is that contributions to the GCF need to be approved by Congress, which was partly or wholly controlled by Republicans on both occasions.

Established in 2010 to channel climate funding to the developing world, the GCF has approved $16 billion worth of projects in 133 countries. Germany, the United Kingdom and Japan have made the biggest contributions to the fund which counts 46 donor countries, including nine developing nations.

Influence and economic power

In her post on Monday, Duarte argued that, while climate change presents risks and foments insecurity, investments in projects to tackle the problem can unlock economic gain and strategic influence.

“Countries that lead in climate finance will lead the future economy,” she wrote. “Countries that invest in climate abroad—and in turn, at home—have serious influencing power to shape the global agenda and set a course for multilateral institutions. When nations step back, others step in.”

Her focus on the economic opportunity of climate action echoes similar remarks made by UN climate chief Simon Stiell in the wake of Trump starting the process to withdraw the US from the Paris climate accord – set to formally enter into force in January 2026.

Speaking in Brazil, the host nation for COP30, Stiell said last week that one country may step back but others were “already stepping into their place to seize the opportunity, and to reap the massive rewards” offered by the transition to clean energy.

But, while lucrative renewable energy projects can more easily tap alternative investors, grant-based climate resilience programmes – heavily reliant on aid money or funds like the GCF – could be more severely imperilled by the US pullback.

‘Constrained’ ambitions

The GCF head cited a project backed by her organisation to help over 200,000 people in El Salvador hit by long droughts that have devastated crops and displaced families. With resilient farming techniques and water resources, they now have “the tools to prevent crises before they escalate and reduce pressures on their community to resort to desperate measures”, Duarte noted.

The cancellation of the GCF pledge by the Trump administration should not affect existing GCF programmes as a spokesperson for the fund said those are fully funded from existing resources.

They added that the GCF has “a strong pipeline” and expects to approve up to $3 billion in new projects this year, but “if pledges are not fully realized, our ability to support the climate ambitions of developing countries will be constrained”.

Cover photo:  GCF's executive director Mafalda Duarte speaking at an event during COP29 in Azerbaijan. Photo: Green Climate Fund/Flickr