Multilateral development banks to boost green grid investment

Members of the Utilities for Net Zero Alliance (UNEZA) announced at COP30 that they have boosted annual green grid investment plans from $117bn/y to $148bn/y. This could see leading global investors mobilise over $1tn in energy transition investments to 2030 since establishing the group at COP28.

Key investors signal ‘a significant shift’ towards green power grids and networks – more than tripling their combined renewable energy capacity to the end of the decade, compared with 2023 levels. UNEZA members say they intend to invest $66bn/y on renewables and $82bn/y on grids and storage.

The announcement was made at a high-level meeting of government ministers and leading multilateral development banks (MDBs), backing new Grid Finance Principles endorsed by the COP30 Presidency. Designed to boost the capital available for emerging economies, these will start with pooled procurement for small island developing states.

Backing for Climate Finance Principles for Green Grids development has been confirmed by the African Development Bank, British International Investment, East African Development Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, Climate Bonds Initiative, Institutional Investors Group for Climate Change, Asia Investment Group on Climate Change, German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), Global Renewables Alliance, Grid Works, Climate High-Level Champions and the UK government.

In a letter to heads of MDBs, COP30 CEO Ana Toni said: ‘Delivering on global goals for tripling renewable energy and doubling energy efficiency by 2030 will only be possible if grids keep pace. Through the Principles and the UNEZA partnership, we [COP30] are turning global commitments into practical delivery… that will enable a clean energy future.’

‘This announcement underscores the magnitude of our intent… We are standing up to deliver the most significant infrastructure upgrade of our lifetime’, remarked Jasim Husain Thabet, CEO of Taqa and co-Chair of UNEZA.

Total commits $100mn to climate investment

Meanwhile, TotalEnergies announced a $100mn commitment to Climate Investment’s Venture Strategy fund, backing technologies that cut emissions across the oil and gas value chain, at a time when a significant number of oil majors are back-peddling on renewables investment.

In a press statement, TotalEnergies emphasised its partnership in the Oil and Gas Decarbonisation Charter (OGDC) under a memorandum of understanding signed in July 2025, and membership of the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI), which is comprised of 12 of the world’s leading energy companies focused on response to climate change.  

Since launch in 2015, the OGCI has deployed hundreds of millions of dollars across 46 early and growth stage investments in methane detection and abatement, carbon capture and energy efficiency, delivering an estimated 133mn tonnes of CO₂ emissions abatement since 2019.

‘TotalEnergies’ commitment to climate investment will help to scale proven solutions for the benefit of the OGDC community,’ said Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman and CEO of TotalEnergies.

TFFF launched

On 6 November, the Brazilian COP30 Presidency formally launched the Tropical Forests Forever Facility (TFFF), a mechanism to provide long-term, predictable financing to countries that protect and sustainably manage their tropical forests.  

After initial contributions from Brazil, Indonesia, Norway and Portugal have announced funding pledges so far, although almost 50 countries expressed support for the initiative. Brazil has set a $125bn target for the TFFF, and aims to raise $10bn initially from governments and philanthropies, which would spur further investments from private, corporate and philanthropic investors.

The UK helped design the scheme, but has not contributed.  

Mirela Sandrini, Interim Executive Director, WRI Brasil, said: ‘The backing from almost 50 countries is encouraging and marks an important start for the TFFF, reflecting growing recognition of the need for collective action to protect and restore tropical forests. However, the pool of those that have actually committed funding so far remains limited. Broader support will be essential if the Facility is to become fully operational. It is the ultimate test of whether nations – especially wealthier ones – will recognise their shared responsibility for protecting the forests that underpin every economy on Earth.’  

The resources made available by the TFFF will be transferred to countries with tropical forests, which will have a predictable and large-scale source of resources to finance long-term objectives. The TFFF expects that payments to countries will be additional to the budget resources currently used for forest conservation, which are extremely limited.

Indigenous activists raise voices at COP30 

Indigenous community members marched alongside international climate activists through the streets of Belém last weekend in a bid to be heard at the UN COP30 Climate Summit. The atmosphere was reputed to be ‘festive’ as participants carried a giant beach ball representing the Earth and a Brazilian flag adorned with the words ‘Protected Amazon’.

Some indigenous protesters stormed the Summit earlier in the week, pleading for action to tackle the worsening climate crisis. The activists called for Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to take concrete action to ensure their territories are protected from growing threats, as indigenous communities are on the front line of many of these developments.

‘We are witnessing a massacre as our forest is being destroyed,’ Benedito Huni Kuin, a member of the Huni Kuin Indigenous group from western Brazil, told the AFP news agency. Aakaluk Adrienne Blatchford is a Inupiaq/Tup’ik from Alaska, US, and organiser of the Indigenous Environmental Network, who witnessed the blockade at the COP Summit, and demands that the voices of indigenous people are heard.

According to the latest International Energy Agency World Energy Outlook, the planet looks set to break through the Paris Agreement target of warming by 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels to reach at least 2.3°C by 2100.  

Previous headlines have suggested that the COP was doomed without the presence of major world leaders including US President Donald Trump, China Premier Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi. But the reality might be different.  

Gareth Redmond King, International Energy Lead at the Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit, said: ‘Despite people saying the big players are absent – they are wrong. China has the second biggest delegation and is the biggest investor in clean energy globally. India also has a big delegation. The EU is here with a new NDC. Although it might be helpful if there were rather fewer fossil fuel lobbyists around the place!’

Claims of obstruction to a just transition

According to a report in The Guardian, despite claims of climate ambition there is a suspicion that governments of wealthy countries in the Global North are obstructing moves towards a just transition, by pressuring Global South countries to move faster despite having enriched themselves from centuries of exploitation of coal, oil and gas.

In a press conference in the Blue Zone, Lidy Nacpil of the Asia People’s Movement for Debt and Development accused the Global North of hypocrisy: ‘I have been to 17 COPs and throughout these many years, it’s been the same story, the same claims, the same hypocrisy – we call it climate hypocrisy – that we see, especially the governments of developed countries or the Global North.’ After analysis of a decade of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) she said: ‘Our study shows that the biggest gap between what must be delivered as their fair shares and what has actually been delivered is that of the Global North. For many of us this is not surprising.’

Meena Rahman of the Third World Network accused Global North countries of evasion around questions of climate finance, and in particular provisions laid out in Article 9.1 of the Paris Agreement. ‘They do not want to talk about their financial obligations,’ she said.

But there is still time to go before the COP Summit ends, and surprise announcements at the eleventh hour are not unknown. COP30 officially runs until this Friday 21 November.