UN Climate Change News, 14 November 2025 - Countries across Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia-Pacific prioritized their investment needs and sharpened their climate investment strategies through a series of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) Clinics co-organized by UN Climate Change, its Regional Collaboration Centres and partners.
The workshops helped governments identify gaps in investment planning, set priorities, and design financing strategies to deliver on their national climate commitments. They also brought together officials from key ministries, financial institutions and the private sector to exchange lessons and best practices.
The first NDC Clinic of the year took place in May during the first Climate Week 2025 in Panama - in collaboration with UNDP, UNEP, and the NDC Partnership. With 135 participants from 20 countries from the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region, it incorporated both regional and global perspectives, showcasing best practices from the LAC region and exploring application of global experiences to enhance action in the region.
During the second Climate Week, held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in September, the Secretariat co-organized with UNDP, UNEP, GIZ and the NDC Partnership two NDC Clinics, one for Anglophone and Lusophone countries, and one for Francophone countries. A total of 103 representatives from 53 countries took part, engaging in presentations, case studies and table discussions. These two events were followed by the NDC Clinic for Asia and the Pacific, which took place in September in Bangkok, Thailand, with 87 representatives from over 30 governments and the support of same co-organizers and ESCAP.
The NDC Clinics provided a platform for dialogue and engagement on key aspects of investment planning and mobilization, covering the full NDC implementation process, including strengthening institutional arrangements, policy alignment, investment prioritization, creation of enabling environments, private sector engagement, and project preparation and structuring. Spread across two days each, they were structured in four thematic segments: (1) institutional/governance arrangements for enabling NDC finance; (2) prioritizing investment needs; (3) financial mechanisms and bankable pipeline development; and (4) NDC clinic mapping exercise. This final segment enabled participants to identify key priorities and opportunities for implementation upon returning to their countries.
The final report of each NDC Clinic can be found in their respective event pages: NDC Clinic Latin America and the Caribbean, NDC Clinic Africa Anglophone, NDC Clinic Africa Francophone, NDC Clinic Asia-Pacific. A collection of takeaways is summarized below.
Challenges and Barriers for NDC Implementation
- Fragmented institutional coordination with overlapping mandates, weak vertical integration, and ministries working in silos;
- Capacity constraints in Ministries and subnational authorities; reliance on short-term consultancies undermines sustainability;
- Data gaps limit evidence-based planning, prioritization, and project bankability;
- Finance bottlenecks, including non-operational climate funds, underfunding of adaptation, limited fiscal space, and regulatory barriers for subnational access;
- Weak private sector engagement due to unclear incentives and value propositions;
- Policy and governance instability, shifting incentives, and misaligned development partner support;
- Dependence on external project preparation facilities, undermining national ownership.
Pathways for implementation and country experiences
- High-level political leadership (e.g. climate governance anchored at presidential or prime ministerial level);
- Development of new investment frameworks and planning tools (e.g. Morocco's New Investment Charter; Mali's sectorial plans and roadmaps, Fiji's NDC Investment Plan with the examples of the Electric Vehicle Network Development)
- Integrated coordination to streamline processes (e.g. Kenya's Climate Change Council; Benin (FNEC) and Guinea's country platforms; Egypt's climate tagging);
- Innovative financing approaches (e.g. Zambia's green bond; South Africa's sovereign bonds; Kenya's Climate Finance Unit; Egypt's Nexus platform; Cote d'Ivoire's result-based financing; Thailand's National Climate Finance Strategy including the green taxonomy, Sustainability-linked Bond, and the National Climate Change Fund; Fiji's National Climate Finance Strategy and the Rural Electrification Fund);
- Structuring pipeline development through private sector engagement (e.g. Zambia's longlist-to-bankable model; Uganda's Project Development Unit; Botswana's National Innovation Fund; Lesotho's adaptation-focused SMEs; Cote d'Ivoire and Burkina Faso's Public/Private Partnership model; Angola's oil & gas sector investing in renewables; São Tomé and Príncipe developing incentives for business involvement);
- South-South cooperation (e.g. replication of Kenya's Local Climate Finance model; Mauritius-India e-mobility partnership);
- Sustainable capacity building (e.g. Liberia's EPA-university partnership; Zimbabwe training negotiators; Kenya strengthening internal expertise);
- Community-level initiatives (e.g. Egypt's "Decent Life" and "Green Village"; Mozambique's Local Adaptation Plans and Local Economic Development Fund)
Development of implementation strategy
- Establish high-level and integrated climate governance: anchor climate leadership at Presidential or Prime ministerial levels. Create cross-sectoral coordination platforms to reduce fragmentation and improve vertical integration.
- Develop and operationalize investment frameworks: design national investment plans and sectoral roadmaps. Use tools like climate tagging and prioritization matrices to align finance with NDC goals.
- Mobilize diverse/innovative financing sources and instruments: leverage innovative mechanisms such as green bonds and result-based financing. Strengthen enabling environments and partnerships to attract private sector investment and structure bankable pipelines.
- Build long-term institutional and technical capacity: reduce reliance on short-term consultancies by investing in internal expertise.
- Scale up local and inclusive climate action: support South-South and community-level adaptation and development initiatives. Promote peer-to-peer cooperation to replicate successful models and foster peer learning.
The remarkable participation of countries at the NDC Clinics reflects a global readiness to accelerate progress and translate ambition into tangible outcomes. As governments sharpen their investment strategies and strengthen institutional arrangements for NDC implementation, implementing partners are working alongside countries to plan and mobilize finance, and fostering stronger collaboration between climate and finance ministries. This collective momentum will be further advanced at COP30, taking place in Belém, Brazil from November 10-21, 2025, where world leaders, ministers, and stakeholders will convene to present new national climate action plans, discuss progress on finance pledges, and participate in high-level sessions dedicated to accelerating NDC implementation at scale.
