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Driving
the Day:
Climate change stops
being abstract the moment it affects your health,
your child's classroom, or the food on your table.
Today at COP 30, the focus turns to some of the
top Global Climate Action Agenda announcements
which are helping the world move from scattered
emergency responses to integrated systems that put
people first.
The numbers as they
stand right now are dire: The WHO projects an
additional 250,000
deaths
every year by the 2030s from climate-driven
diseases such as malaria, diarrhoea, and coastal
flooding. The climate crisis threatens to undo
half a century of progress in global health and
poverty reduction, deepening inequalities within
and between countries. In 2023, people endured, on
average, 50 more
days of health-threatening heat, while over 700,000
child deaths in 2021 were linked to air pollution.
Already, 930
million people – one in eight
globally – spend at least 10% of their income on
health care, and 100 million are pushed into
poverty every year by medical
costs.
But today’s
announcements show that these numbers can be
turned around. Adaptation and resilience are being
built where it matters most – in hospital wards
preparing for heatwaves, in school cafeterias
serving locally-grown meals, in early warning
systems that turn climate data into lifesaving
action. And crucially the money is starting to
follow.
Drive
to Develop Project Pipelines of USD 1 Trillion for
National Adaptation Plans by 2028
Today’s
launch of the Fostering
Investible National Planning and Implementation
(FINI) for Adaptation & Resilience
tackles
the toughest question about adaptation:
how
to pay for it.
Led
by the Atlantic Council’s Climate Resilience
Center and the Natural Resources Defense Council,
FINI
aims to turn National
Adaptation Plans
– country-level roadmaps that outline how nations
will prepare for and respond to climate impacts –
from policy documents into investable plans that
can attract real, large-scale funding from the
private sector.
FINI
will identify vulnerable assets, assess the value
of building resilience, and connect the right type
of finance to the right projects.
The
goal: develop
project pipelines of USD 1 trillion in adaptation
investment pipelines by 2028,
with 20%
coming from private investors,
plus USD
500 million from multilateral agencies and
philanthropies
for risk assessment and to build local capacity
for implementation. Additionally, it aims for a
25%
rise in pre-arranged finance.
The
initiative brings together a vast collaboration:
countries like Colombia, Peru; multilateral banks
including the Asian Development Bank, IDB Invest;
insurers such as Zurich, Howden and the Insurance
Development Forum; investors like Gawa
Capital, Institutional Investors Group on Climate
Change, the Lightsmith Group; global organizations
and coalitions like UNDP, the United Nations
Environment Programme Finance Initiative, CDRI,
V20, Global Green Growth Institute; philanthropies
including the Gates Foundation, European Climate
Foundation; and data leaders like S&P
Global.
Why
this matters:
Most
developing countries remain unprepared for
intensifying climate impacts. Less than 5% of
global climate finance
supports
adaptation. As of early 2025, 64
countries
have submitted National
Adaptation Plans
(NAPs), but many are lacking investment-ready
projects. NAPs are key to unleashing the epic
transformative power of investing in climate
resilience. They are the blueprints for stronger
economies, more resilient societies, and faster
progress right across the SDGs. FINI represents a
major shift in how the world finances adaptation –
from fragmented, short-term funding to long-term
investment in resilience. FINI aims to make
adaptation truly investable, delivering tangible
resilience returns for people and the planet.
New
Belém Health Action Plan Gets USD 300 Million
Commitment
One
of the biggest announcements taking centre stage
today is the launch of the Brazilian-led Belém
Health Action Plan
– the world’s first international climate
adaptation plan dedicated entirely to health. The
plan lays out concrete actions to help countries
monitor and respond to the growing health threats
of climate change, from heat stress and dengue to
air pollution and mental health.
- The
plan launches with an
initial USD 300 million investment
from the Climate and Health Funders Coalition, a
group of more than 35 philanthropies. The money
will fund research, policies, and solutions
tackling extreme heat, air pollution, and
infectious diseases. It will also strengthen
health systems through the integration of
critical climate data. Committed funders include
Bloomberg Philanthropies, Children’s Investment
Fund Foundation, Gates Foundation, IKEA
Foundation, Quadrature Climate Foundation, The
Rockefeller Foundation, Philanthropy Asia
Alliance (by Temasek Trust), and Wellcome.
- The
plan also brings together the Cool
Cities Accelerator
(a new Rockefeller Foundation and C40
partnership) which is helping cities set and
fund targets to protect residents from extreme
heat. Also under the umbrella is an $11.5
million investment
from earlier this year by The Rockefeller
Foundation and Wellcome Trust to the WHO–WMO
Climate and Health Joint Programme, which will
help create new health–meteorology units across
7+ countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
“We
are calling for a global effort to protect the
health of vulnerable people, reinforcing health
systems preparedness to cope with extreme heat,
floods, droughts, and other emergencies”, said
Brazil’s Minister of Health, Dr. Alexandre
Padilha.
Why
this matters:
Climate
change is already amplifying health risks. Yet
fewer than one in
three countries
currently have climate-informed health systems.
Brazil’s plan creates a model for coordinated
global action – linking climate science, public
health, and finance – to safeguard lives and
livelihoods in a warming world.
From
Soil to Schools: Rockefeller Invests USD 5 Million
in Brazil’s Regenerative Future
The
Rockefeller Foundation
has announced USD 5.4
million in new grants
to strengthen Brazil’s food systems by linking
regenerative agriculture with the country’s
world-leading National
School Feeding Program (PNAE).
The
investment will empower 12
partner organizations
– including Instituto
Clima e Sociedade (ICS),
Instituto
Arapyaú and
Instituto
Comida do Amanhã
– to work with smallholder farmers to regenerate
soils, boost biodiversity, revitalize rural
economies, and bring healthy, locally sourced
meals to schoolchildren across Brazil.
For
example, Instituto
Clima e Sociedade (ICS)
is running a project to connect smallholder and
family farmers with PRONAF, one of the world’s
largest rural credit programmes, to advance
agroecological production as a bioeconomy
solution. The initiative trains youth and women to
access financing, supports farmer-to-farmer
learning, and helps schools source fresh, local,
and healthy food from Brazilian
producers.
“Supporting
farmers and unlocking finance is foundational to
our big bet on regenerative school meals – one of
the world’s most powerful tools for improving
children’s lives, building local economies, and
sustaining the planet,” said Elizabeth Yee,
Executive Vice President of The Rockefeller
Foundation.
Rockefeller
is a member of a Plan to
Accelerate Solutions on regenerative
agriculture
– advancing healthy soil and healthy diets, along
with key partners such as the Coalition
of Action for Soil Health,
the Global
Alliance for the Future of Food,
and the East
African Farmers Federation.
Why
it matters:
Brazil’s
PNAE already directs 30% of federal school meal
funds to smallholder farmers, a share set to rise
to 45% in 2026. Rockefeller’s investment advances
its global goal of transforming food systems –
including reaching 100
million children worldwide
with nutritious, regeneratively produced school
meals.
A
Global Recipe for Halving Food Waste by
2030
A
new initiative launched today aims to halve
global food waste by 2030,
cut
methane emissions by up to seven per
cent,
and reduce
hunger worldwide.
The Food Waste
Breakthrough,
a 2030
Climate Solution
led by the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP) under the Marrakech Partnership for Global
Climate Action, unites governments, cities, and
civil society to tackle one of the most overlooked
drivers of climate change.
A
USD 3 million Global Environment Facility grant,
will kickstart the initiative: building capacity,
and funding data and policy innovation. It will
also scale local food waste prevention and methane
reduction solutions such as community composting
and food recovery networks in developing
countries.
“The
world wastes an unforgivable amount of food each
year, in every country, rich and poor,” said Inger
Andersen, UNEP Executive Director. “Reducing this
food waste is key to addressing hunger and cutting
methane emissions from landfills.”
Why
this matters:
The
world wastes over one
billion tonnes of food
every year, contributing up to 10% of global
greenhouse gas emissions. It accounts for up to
14% of
methane emissions
– a short-lived climate pollutant that is 84 times
more potent at warming the atmosphere than carbon
dioxide over 20 years. As food waste also equates
to a
financial loss of
USD
1 trillion per year,
the Food Waste Breakthrough offers one of the most
cost-effective, scalable, and high-impact
solutions to tackle climate and
hunger. |
