At the UN climate talks in Bonn, member countries have agreed to raise the UNFCCC core budget by 10% for the 2024–2025 period, marking the first such increase since 2018. The move comes in response to growing demands on the UN Climate Secretariat, which is tasked with overseeing implementation of the Paris Agreement, coordinating annual COP summits, and supporting the Global Stocktake—the mechanism used to track collective progress toward keeping global warming below 1.5°C. The budget increase, though modest in absolute terms (raising the budget from approximately €58 million to €63.8 million), is seen as essential for ensuring that the UNFCCC can scale up support to countries, particularly low-income and climate-vulnerable nations.
The additional funding will enable the Secretariat to expand its technical and logistical support for nationally determined contributions (NDCs), loss and damage mechanisms, and climate finance tracking. It will also support preparations for COP30 in Brazil (2025) and help manage increased demands for climate transparency, data reporting, and compliance checks. Developing countries, which have often raised concerns about limited access to climate data and insufficient technical support, are expected to benefit most from this investment. Observers note that as the climate crisis intensifies, the operational capacity of the UNFCCC must be strengthened to ensure accountability, equity, and the credibility of global climate agreements. More