Scaling up Green Accountability in the Global South: Launch of the Green Accountability Community of Practice

Current geo-political tensions call for enhanced accountability and transparency of climate finance

In 2023, the Paris Agreement’s global temperature goal of 1.5°C was exceeded for the first time. A year later, the world faced the hottest year on record, and a series of climate disasters caused severe economic losses and loss of lives across the globe. At the end of last year, all eyes were on COP29, known as the ‘Finance COP’, to deliver on the urgent commitment to increased climate finance provision, which had previously been insufficient to meet even a fraction of the needs of developing countries. However, the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) on climate finance was met with much disappointment and frustration, falling markedly short of addressing the urgency of the climate crisis. In 2025, Global South countries face even greater challenges, with the current US funding freeze and withdrawal of the US from the Paris Agreement having devastating knock-on effects on climate and health. These crises signal the need for a radical shift to domesticate development finance and centre transparency and accountability mechanisms within the multi-lateral finance agenda, particularly for climate finance. By strengthening transparency and accountability mechanisms in public budget and policy processes and increasing the visibility of these systems, civil society can more effectively advocate for their needs and new and innovative climate financing can be unlocked and channelled to where it is most needed.

 

Green accountability can reduce the costs of climate action, while empowering communities

Green accountability places citizens at the centre of climate finance processes. It ensures that civil society organisations are included in important decision-making processes that affect their everyday lives, that they have access to timely and accurate climate information, and that public budget and policy processes are inclusive and informed through public participation. In this way, citizens are empowered to ensure the responsible expenditure of climate finance and can actively participate in climate action through informed decision-making. Better transparency and accountability mechanisms have potential to save more than $100 billion a year in public climate finance, while ensuring that finance provision is equitable, affordable and effective. In the Global South, many communities and civil society organisations working at the frontline of climate action are often excluded from participating in governance processes and don’t receive the necessary support required for climate action. For example, Indigenous people safeguard approximately 80% of the world’s biodiversity but currently receive just 1% of climate finance. Such inequities call for enhanced transparency and accountability frameworks for climate finance, which are often absent at the sub-national and local government level.

 

Enhancing green accountability in Brazil, Mexico, Bangladesh, Senegal and Cameroon through a global Community of Practice

Through the World Bank’s Global Partnership for Social Accountability (GPSA), SSN, the World Resources Institute (WRI), and the Huairou Commission have launched the Green Accountability Platform to support 25 grantees across Bangladesh, Brazil, Mexico, Senegal and Cameroon to implement green accountability interventions within their local contexts. The Platform also supports a Community of Practice (CoP), providing a space to convene practitioners to share their experience and lessons from testing social accountability mechanisms for climate action, including climate finance, while enabling a network of practitioners to jointly advocate for matters of importance within this context.

The CoP supports three Affinity Groups that focus on the following areas: transparency, climate finance, and advocacy and engagement. These thematic groups offer a space for knowledge-sharing, collaboration, and co-creation aligned with the grantees’ projects, while also offering exposure to global best practice and opportunities for collaboration through the participation of the global community in the CoP’s activities.

Specifically, the CoP provides a strategic platform to profile current green accountability actions being undertaken across the project countries. For example, BudgIT Senegal has developed the Simplified Green Budget 2024-2025, which provides timely and simplified climate information and data in the agriculture, energy and water and sanitation sectors to empower citizens to be able to monitor, track, and demand improved service delivery, while fostering accountability and transparency of climate action. In Brazil, INESC is actively strengthening the adaptation agenda through advocacy and public consultation on the National Climate Adaptation Strategy, and mapping adaptation budgetary actions within the public program for risk and disaster management. Other projects being implemented through the CoP’s practitioners include strengthening the capabilities of Civil Society Organisations and communities in disaster risk reduction strategies in Bangladesh; enhancing gender responsive climate finance and budgeting for the implementation, monitoring and reporting of National Adaptation Plans, Gender Action Plans (GAPs) and National Determined Contributions (NDCs) in Cameroon; and developing a Subnational Sustainable Finance Index (SSFI) to monitor sustainable finance in the 32 federal entities of Mexico.

 

Reforming the multilateral finance agenda: opportunities for civic engagement in global policy processes

While the CoP aims to elevate country experiences in enhancing green accountability, it also intends to build momentum around enhanced advocacy for global climate finance reform in the lead-up to the UN 4th Financing for Development Conference (FF4D), the Climate Weeks and COP30 taking place in July and November this year. It is becoming increasingly important that these platforms ensure community voices are integrated into strategic actions for innovative climate finance provision and that decision-making processes are decentralised – shifting the balance of power to locally led development that can drive real change. At the 5th Finance in Common Summit (FiCS ), which took place in Cape Town in February, the role of Public Development Banks (PDBs) as agents of change was at the forefront of discussions, noting that co-financing, the adoption of a common language, and leveraging the comparative advantages and diversities of these institutions are vital for the progression of an inclusive and fair climate finance agenda. Importantly, ensuring PDBs develop and adhere to stringent accountability mechanisms, such as the application of environmental and social protections, transparency tools, and grievance mechanisms, can ensure the protection of communities and their surrounding natural resources during both project pipeline development and project implementation.

In addition, data is critical to unlocking innovative debt financing, which is often met with bias and a high perception of risk, particularly for Global South countries. Credit rating models must reform their processes of risk integration beyond traditional indicators such as gross domestic product (GDP), fiscal balance and external debt to enable critical financing for climate vulnerable countries. For example, a study by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) suggests that through integrating disaster-linked relief debt measures into risk assessments, the credit ratings of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) could improve significantly. Such evidence calls for flexibility and the tailoring of traditional financing mechanisms to ensure that the current multilateral financing agenda is fair and addresses the most pressing climate and development challenges.

As such, platforms such as FiCS, FF4D, the G20 and COP30 are important opportunities to continue building momentum around the climate finance reform process, as already supported through the Addis Ababa Action Agenda 2015 and the G20 MDB Roadmap.  In addition, global convenings and policy processes must ensure civic space is made a key priority and that the recommendations and inputs from civil society actors are adequately integrated into formal agendas and outcomes. For example, the FiCS Civil Society Declaration unites civil society and community representatives, putting forward actionable recommendations for PDBs to commit to transformative actions which place human rights and sustainability at the forefront of financing decisions.

The Green Accountability Platform and CoP seeks to reinforce the critical role of accountability, transparency, and participation in climate finance. By strengthening collaboration between civil society and financial institutions, the CoP will enhance global-to-local knowledge sharing on climate finance best practice, and continue to serve as a hub for peer learning and policy influence in order to drive meaningful change in climate governance and contribute to the agenda on social accountability for climate finance. Your participation in this transformative initiative helps to drive forward the green accountability agenda for more inclusive and responsible climate finance processes.