COP31 president-designate Murat Kurum has sent out his latest communication as head of the United Nations climate conference in November, setting out a new initiative aimed at addressing one of the most persistent barriers to global climate action: turning national commitments into projects that can secure finance and be delivered on the ground.
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In his third letter to parties dated 25 August, Kurum introduced the Climate Implementation Bridge (CIB), or BRIDGE, as a central part of the summit’s Action Agenda, which is the UN climate process’ implementation track. It brings together voluntary efforts to turn the Paris Agreement’s goals and COP decisions into real-world projects, partnerships and solutions that can be scaled up.
BRIDGE is designed to help countries move from climate and development priorities to investment-ready project portfolios, by “strengthening project preparation, institutional capacity and access to finance … and accelerate the delivery of mitigation and adaptation actions across priority sectors”, said Kurum in the letter.
“Many developing countries continue to face significant barriers in accessing climate finance, preparing bankable projects and strengthening institutional capacity, limiting their ability to translate commitments into action. For these reasons, scaling up the BRIDGE by 2035 provides a practical mechanism for closing the implementation gap,” he added.
For developing countries in Asia and the Global South, BRIDGE could be among the agenda’s most consequential elements as many have updated nationally determined contributions (NDC’s) and adaptation plans, but are “hitting a wall of high capital costs, sovereign debt distress, and limited technical bandwidth to structure complex climate investments”, said Harjeet Singh, Climate Activist and Founding Director of global climate justice nonprofit Satat Sampada Climate Foundation.
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While these funds could be improved and streamlined, it is legitimate to question the need to create yet another vehicle, with its own rules and modalities, and the accompanying risk of further fragmentation and opacity.
Tasneem Essop, Executive Director, Climate Action Network
But the framing the problem solely around preparing “bankable projects” carries a hidden risk, added Singh.
“Adaptation, loss and damage, and social protection priorities are rarely commercially ‘bankable’ in the eyes of private investors, yet they are the most critical needs for vulnerable communities,” Singh told Eco-Business.
“BRIDGE can only be transformative if it gives equal weight to non-revenue-generating projects related to adaptation, resilience and addressing losses and damages, alongside clean energy infrastructure.”
Tasneem Essop, Executive Director of Climate Action Network, a coalition of more than 1,300 civil society organisations fighting the climate crisis, said they are hopeful that the initiative can create renewed commitment to mobilising finance but noted how there have been many other initiatives aimed at unlocking investment, supporting bankable projects and facilitating “matchmaking” between partners but these have not delivered the scale of financing and investment needed.
“We remain sceptical because the real underlying barriers to climate finance are not being recognised or addressed. Issues that developing countries have consistently raised include debt burdens, the cost of capital and the tendency to provide loans rather than grants, which pushes countries further into debt,” Essop told Eco-Business.
“While parallel initiatives and platforms can help highlight the problems and needs, they must not be mistaken for the genuine transformation that governments need to undertake to mobilise finance at the scale required.”
Essop added that financial instruments already available and decisions taken at previous COPS must be met first, such as the new climate finance goal or the Baku-to-Belém Roadmap to US$1.3 trillion, an effort to identify ways to scale total climate finance for developing countries by 2035.
“The priority must be for developed countries to demonstrate how they will meet their existing obligations and commitments, including by presenting their post-2025 climate finance plans. While these funds could be improved and streamlined, it is legitimate to question the need to create yet another vehicle, with its own rules and modalities, and the accompanying risk of further fragmentation and opacity,” she said.
However, Kurum said in his letter that the initiative would not involve creating a new fund or financial mechanism, describing it as an “open global invitation to strengthen cooperation, and build coalitions.”
Global climate change thinktank E3G told Eco-Business that for the initiative to be effective, it must focus on each country’s individual needs and challenges rather than applying a more general approach, and must “support rather than duplicate already existing initiatives”.
Existing initiatives include the NDC Partnership that helps governments sequence NDC implementation and identify investment priorities and financing needs, while UN agencies such as UNDP provide support on NDC costing, climate finance governance, financing strategies and alignment with national adaptation plans.
Multilateral development banks also play a major role. The Asian Development Bank’s ASEAN Catalytic Green Finance Facility, for instance, helps governments develop climate priorities into financeable infrastructure projects. Climate funds, including the Green Climate Fund, Global Environment Facility, Adaptation Fund and Climate Investment Funds, can provide readiness grants, concessional capital and guarantees.
No fossil fuel pledge
While Kurum’s letter presents electrification, renewable energy, efficiency and power sector decarbonisation as central to COP31’s clean energy agenda, it contains no explicit pledge or proposed commitment to phase out or phase down fossil fuels.
Instead, it underscored the presidency’s preference for voluntary, non-prescriptive implementation targets – most notably lifting electricity’s share of final energy consumption to 35 per cent by 2035 – and stressed that these goals would create no new obligations for individual countries.
Türkiye’s elevation of finance through BRIDGE acknowledges that funding is central to any credible COP outcome. But finance and the fossil fuel transition cannot be treated as separate silos, said Singh of the Satat Sampada Climate Foundation.
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Focusing on electrification, waste, and project pipelines is welcome, but dodging the phase-out of coal, oil, and gas makes the math of staying within 1.5°C impossible.
Harjeet Singh, Climate Activist and Founding Director, Satat Sampada Climate Foundation
Singh said that the co-presidency of Türkiye and Australia cannot provide a credible implementation agenda while dodging the core mandate of the COP28 Global Stocktake, which calls for a “rapid, equitable transition away from fossil fuels.”
“Focusing on electrification, waste, and project pipelines is welcome, but dodging the phase-out of coal, oil, and gas makes the math of staying within 1.5°C impossible,” he said.
“A genuine implementation bridge must finance the just transition itself – enabling developing countries to leapfrog fossil fuels and phase down existing extraction without wrecking their economies.”
Australia and Türkiye must explicitly connect BRIDGE to fossil fuel phase-out pathways, underpinned by clear commitments from wealthy fossil-producing nations to lead the transition and pay their fair share of the bill, he added.
COP31 uses a split leadership model with Türkiye holding the formal presidency, hosting the Antalya summit and leads the Action Agenda, while Australia’s Chris Bowen is the president of negotiations that has delegated, exclusive authority to steer the formal UN climate talks in consultation with Türkiye.
