Press Release: EU Climate Finance Position, The Emperor Has No Clothes

(Brussels, 10 October 2025) Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe warns that today’s decisions by EU Finance Ministers fall far short of what is needed to unlock global progress on a number of fronts at COP30. While the outcomes include some welcome references to adaptation and Article 2.1(c), it lacks the ambition and equity required to shift global flows and deliver finance at the scale needed by countries in the Global South to tackle the impacts of the climate crisis. Finance runs through every part of the COP30 negotiations, yet the EU’s message to the world today remains largely muddled. EU Finance Ministers today acknowledged the importance of public finance, but this was confusingly coupled with the decision to continue to perpetuate the myth that private finance will fill the gaps in the Baku-to-Belém Roadmap. Experience shows that private capital simply has not delivered at the scale needed. The EU’s recognition that new levies could help scale up resources is a step in the right direction. Equitable polluter-pays taxes on fossil fuel profits, aviation and wealth could make a real difference if designed fairly. The EU should act at national, EU and international levels to turn these ideas into concrete sources of finance. Ultimately, the EU must scale up public finance, support reforms on debt and taxation, and ensure that new finance reaches those most in need. ‘Right now, the EU’s finance commitments are starting to look like the Emperor’s New Clothes. ECOFIN may believe it has dressed the bloc in a splendid position ahead of COP30, but the rest of the world can see it stands bare’ said Chiara Martinelli, Director at CAN Europe. ‘The money is there for the taking, from taxes on fossil fuel profits, aviation, and wealth. The EU should be scaling up real, public money on the table to support those most impacted. If Europe wants credibility in Belém, it must start by dressing its ambition in funded action’.

Article 2.1(c)

Today’s ECOFIN Conclusions positively show that the EU wants to continue the process on Art 2.1c, the third long term goal of the Paris Agreement, to shift all financial flows in line with low greenhouse gas emissions and climate resilient development. Without the EU taking an ambitious and equitable approach though, this risks becoming a talking shop. COP30 finance negotiations must be anchored in equity and action: starting with phasing out fossil fuel subsidies (with the wealthiest countries in the lead), and reforming the global financial architecture to give Global South countries the fiscal space to act. The EU also needs to lead by example, swiftly advancing its own framework to phase out fossil fuel subsidies at home.

Adaptation

Today’s ECOFIN’s language on adaptation finance does mark a small step forward, setting out how the EU is committed to support and accelerate collective efforts. At COP30 however, the EU must back a clear goal to at least triple adaptation finance from 2025 to 2030, as called for by the LDC Group and at the Africa Climate Summit. Without predictable grant-based finance, these pledges will remain empty promises. ‘In Belém, the EU needs to step up its game by backing a goal to at least triple adaptation finance, committing along with other wealthy countries to phase out fossil fuel finance, and supporting reforms that make finance fair, predictable and aligned with climate justice’ said Rachel Simon, Senior Policy Coordinator, International Finance & Development at CAN Europe. ‘By only offering cautious wording on adaptation and 2.1(c), the EU Finance Ministers are revealing that they still haven’t quite grasped what’s at stake’. ENDS Read more: