For developing countries, the challenge of raising finance to meet the costs of climate change looks impossibly daunting.
Rich countries have commonly failed to deliver the amounts they promised — which, in any case, are far short of what is needed. Borrowing holds little appeal for low-income countries, more than half of which are in debt distress or at high risk of it. And blended finance, in which multilateral institutions, such as development banks, attract commercial capital — once seen as having great potential — has proved a damp squib.
That has left development economists to conclude that, rather than tinkering with solutions to a fraction of the problem, what is needed is an overhaul of those multilateral institutions to increase their firepower.