New findings reveal that two-thirds of adaptation commitments lack payment records, while loans dominate climate finance, raising concerns over accountability and renewable energy investment in Bangladesh.
Least developed countries must receive more adaptation grants and climate finance must become more transparent to prevent the climate crisis from deepening public debt, civil society groups said at COP31 in Antalya.
Change Initiative, Transparency International, the Climate Action Network South Asia (CANSA) Bangladesh chapter and Young Power in Social Action (YPSA) made the call at a joint press conference titled “Breaking the Climate Debt Trap: Financing Nature-Smart Energy Sovereignty” on the second day of COP31.
The event was held in Press Conference Room 2, Area D4 (Yunus Emre), at the Antalya Expo Center. M. Zakir Hossain Khan, Co-Founder and Chief Executive of Change Initiative, delivered the keynote, while Mofazzal Hossain, Research Coordinator at Change Initiative, presented findings on renewable energy. Brice Böhmer, Climate Lead at the Transparency International Secretariat, Mohammad Shahjahan, President of the CANSA-Bangladesh Chapter, and Roaa, CEO and Founder of United Beyond Borders, took part in the moderated discussion. Mohammad Arifur Rahman, Chief Executive of YPSA, delivered the closing remarks.
Khan, a proponent of Natural Rights-Led Governance, said the debt burden faced by the 55 countries covered by the Climate Debt and Risk Index was particularly severe. In 2023 alone, those countries spent US$47.17 billion on debt service, compared with US$33.74 billion in climate finance recorded for them across 2002-2023. The debt-service figure covers all categories of external debt.
Eight countries account for 74.3 percent of the climate loans recorded in the index, Khan said. Bangladesh, Cabo Verde, Cambodia, Myanmar, Pakistan, the Philippines, Senegal and Sri Lanka each received more in loans than in grants.
Official development aid fell by 23.1 percent in 2025, the largest drop on record, according to the figures presented at the conference.
The groups also highlighted a gap between climate finance commitments and actual payments. Climate finance from developed countries increased from US$115.9 billion in 2022 to US$136.7 billion in 2024, but only US$2.3 billion of the US$20.8 billion increase went to adaptation.
Two-thirds of public climate finance still came as loans, while US$32.43 billion in adaptation commitments, or 66.1 percent of the total, had no corresponding payment record, the groups said.
In Bangladesh, a World Bank-supported coastal embankment project initially promised to protect 100,800 hectares but later reduced the target to 66,012 hectares and delivered protection to 65,657 hectares, leaving 35,143 hectares without the protection initially promised.
Khan said four days of global military spending were equivalent to a full year of public adaptation finance. He argued that diverting 40 to 50 percent of public fossil fuel subsidies from G20 nations could provide the grants required for adaptation.
Mofazzal Hossain said Bangladesh produces less than 0.5 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions but had received 90.4 percent of its renewable energy investment since 2000 in the form of loans.
Of US$2.54 billion in climate finance directed to Bangladesh’s energy sector, US$0.88 billion paid for coal and gas plants including Matarbari and Bheramara, he said.
On current terms, renewable energy debt would reach US$105 per person by 2040, exceeding Bangladesh’s current climate debt of about US$80 per person across all sectors, according to the findings presented by Hossain.
Change Initiative proposed a Renewable Energy Sovereignty Facility, a national fund for least developed countries based on grants, guarantees and capped public loans. It said the facility could finance the same US$7.69 billion in renewable energy investment planned for 2026-2030 while reducing new public debt from US$4.6 billion to US$0.8 billion. It would also keep renewable energy debt at US$24 per person by 2040, a 77 percent reduction.
Khan called on COP31 to agree on a starting amount and annual targets for adaptation grants from 2027. He also urged countries to distinguish loans from grants in all climate finance reporting and to exclude fossil fuel projects.
He called for national renewable energy funds capable of investing without adding to public debt, with pilots beginning in Bangladesh in 2027.
“LDCs must not become victims twice over: first through climate vulnerability, and second through an unjust debt burden. The bottom line is clear: stop relabeling ODA as climate finance. Nature does not respect borders or publicity; it only responds to real human actions. Climate finance must be delivered as grants to protect ecosystems and human life,” Khan said.
“The issue is not an absence of money; the problem is that money comes through the wrong channels. Development banks lend to the Bangladesh government, the government lends to state agencies, and state agencies lend to households and investors. This debt cycle traps everyone. Renewable energy should not add to public debt,” Hossain said.
In the discussion, speakers linked climate debt to transparency, accountability and historical responsibility.
Böhmer of Transparency International said a “lack of transparency and accountability in climate finance can lead to corruption”. He said corruption worsens the climate crisis by obstructing and weakening climate policies and allowing attacks on environmental defenders to go unpunished.
He called for civil society and local communities to monitor whether climate investments respond to local priorities. He also urged COP31 to address accountability and integrity in its planned consultations on efficiency and reform.
Mohammad Shahjahan, Director of the KM4D Division at YPSA and lead of the Bangladesh chapter of CANSA, said developed countries should provide new, additional, predictable and grant-based climate finance rather than repackaging development assistance and loans as climate commitments.
“Developed countries must stop converting climate responsibility into climate debt. They must provide new, additional, predictable and grant-based climate finance, rather than repackaging development assistance and loans as climate commitments,” he said.
Roaa, CEO and Founder of United Beyond Borders, said young people wanted more grant-based financing for local community projects and greater accountability for historical emissions.
“Developed countries often avoid the word ‘debt’ and prefer ‘finance’, but in reality, it is debt. Developing countries are suffering destruction caused over centuries by developed nations, yet when it comes to finance, it is called a shared collective responsibility. As youth, we need more grant-based financing for local community projects, and developed countries must be held accountable for their historical emissions,” Roaa said.
Closing the press conference, YPSA Chief Executive Mohammad Arifur Rahman urged journalists to produce investigative reports on climate finance.
“We urge journalists to produce in-depth investigative reports showing that climate finance should be provided as unconditional grants to the countries most affected by climate impacts. Current financing models add to national debt burdens that must ultimately be paid back by ordinary citizens. All climate finance must be delivered as grants, and media pressure is crucial to influence policymakers,” he said.
Responding to a question from the floor about the role of the private sector in the Global South, Khan said private companies were important, particularly for technology and manufacturing, but adaptation finance should not be left to private markets or profit motives.
“For renewable energy, transparent direct investment and sovereign frameworks must lead the transition, not commercial debt traps,” he said.
