How to turn global pledges into real support for conflict-affected states.

As COP30 in Belém unfolds, the central challenge is clear: turning climate pledges into real action. A critical gap is that more than one billion people live in countries affected by conflict and fragile governance, yet they receive only a small fraction of global climate finance despite facing some of the most severe climate impacts.

Ministers from Yemen and Somalia underscored this imbalance, noting that it is often easier to secure humanitarian aid after disaster strikes than to access climate finance needed to prevent crises in the first place. Unless this imbalance is addressed, global recovery efforts will fall short, regardless of the ambition reflected in COP30’s final outcomes. 

Peace is also largely missing from the COP conversation this year, yet it is essential: without integrating peacebuilding and climate efforts, interventions risk exacerbating tensions rather than strengthening stability and resilience.

Scroll down to watch our Senior Climate Advisor Nazanine Moshiri share her recommendations and reflections from COP30, where she engaged in a variety of discussions from climate mis/disinformation to bridging data gaps to climate policy during times of war and more. 

Nazanine Moshiri warns that sidelining peace at COP30 could jeopardise global climate goals. She argues that integrating conflict-sensitive approaches into climate policy is essential for lasting resilience and sustainable development. 

Nazanine Moshiri represented Berghof at COP30, contributing to a series of high-level discussions on climate, peace and security.
 
A key takeaway across her engagements was clear: global climate action will fall short unless conflict sensitivity, peacebuilding and locally led approaches are built into climate policy and finance.

Yet, climate finance still struggles to reach the fragile and conflict-affected areas that need it most. Our peacebuilding efforts can help bridge that gap by:

• Spotting conflict risks early, ensuring adaptation efforts don’t unintentionally fuel competition or exclusion.
• Building cooperation among communities, local authorities and civil society, so projects don’t depend on a single actor to succeed.
• Elevating local women, youth and peacebuilders -- those with the trust, access and networks to deliver where national systems are overstretched.
• Feeding real-time political and local insights back to donors, helping them shape financing models that fit the context rather than penalise it.

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