LocationsRemarks by Ms Beate Trankmann at the 2025 Climate Philanthropy & Business International Dialogue
October 19, 2025
UNDP Resident Representative in China, Beate Trankmann, delivered remarks at the 2025 Climate Philanthropy and Business International Dialogue in Shanghai, China.
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen: Good morning!
On behalf of UNDP, I am delighted to join this event getting an opportunity to engage with so many partners committed to scaling climate action.
Around the world, the effects of climate change are no longer distant warnings. They are daily disasters: from deadly heatwaves, to devastating floods and droughts causing mounting losses. In China, natural disasters in 2024 collectively led to direct economic losses of around $54 .5 billion.[i]
We have less than five years to the 2030 deadline of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to ensure that our planet can sustain and include everyone and avert the worst effects of climate change. Yet, only 17 percent of SDG targets are on track. Some, including in particular Climate Action, Goal 13, are in fact even regressing.[ii]
Lack of finance is the key challenge. The SDGs face an annual financing gap of approximately $4 trillion. This is significant, but equivalent to just 1 percent of global assets[iii]. The issue is not the shortage of capital, but how funds are allocated and channeled and how risks are managed.
It is clear that public finance and philanthropy alone cannot close the gap. But, they can play an important role in catalyzing private investment. With the right incentives, significant market capital can be unlocked.
To illustrate: between 2022 and 2024, for every public dollar leveraged, UNDP mobilized nearly $60 in emerging market SDG investments.[iv] Working with diverse partners, including some here today, and with innovative financing, collectively we can transform "billions" into "trillions" and turn challenges into investable opportunities for sustainable development.
Climate finance is not a cost. It is an investment in businesses and economies, unlocking vast jobs and growth potential. When policies and funding align, clean energy, green infrastructure, and climate-resilient industries become powerful growth engines. China is a case in point. Its 2030/2060 Dual Carbon Goals demonstrate that a major economy can pursue ambitious climate targets that ignite rapid innovation and growth in green sectors, such as wind, solar power, and EVs. In 2024, clean energy in fact contributed 10% to China’s GDP.
Today’s session comes at an ideal time to discuss incentives and innovations in public and philanthropic funding, to unleash the catalytic effect of climate and sustainable capital. I would like to highlight three steps to enable this:
First, it’s important to broaden the scope of policies, frameworks, and tools – as critical means to channel public and private financing towards sustainable development outcomes and for greater synergies and co-benefits.
China has shown significant progress in green financing and is continuously improving its standards and policy environment. By 2024, its green loans stood at 5.1 trillion dollars,[v] while 69 billion dollars of green bonds aligned with international standards were issued last year.[vi] The recently released new Catalogue of Green Finance-Supported Projects has further aligned the country's standards with international norms, reducing friction in cross-border climate financing.
"Climate finance is not a cost. It is an investment in businesses and economies, unlocking vast jobs and growth potential."
While further cementing the green market, there is now an opportunity to move beyond pure “green”, exploring innovative financing tools and mechanisms, including to support low-carbon transitions in hard-to-abate sectors.
To facilitate this, UNDP’s SDG Impact Standards, SDG Finance Taxonomy, and SDG Investor Maps, are useful tools to guide investors towards SDG-aligned investment opportunities and business models, while addressing information asymmetries. In China our four investor maps in health, agriculture, renewable energy and the circular economy have identified 18 investment opportunities worth 280bln USD up to 2026 that are both economically viable and deliver impact.
Second, new finance partnerships are critical, as attracting private capital alone to enter high-risk, long-duration sustainable development projects remains a challenge. Blended finance can make those projects more feasible and attractive to the private sector.
This is particularly the case for low-income countries: ODA (Official Development Aid) is contracting; high debt burdens push many countries to prioritize debt servicing over development; and weak macroeconomic conditions further restrict capital market access. Blended finance—combining concessional grants and loans with guarantees and private capital—is therefore essential to de-risk projects and mobilize the scale of investment required. To keep the 2030 Agenda on track, we must channel public funds, including philanthropy, to scale private capital and target support sustainable development of low-income countries.
UNDP is structuring blended finance with grant and loan partners, to mobilize larger flows towards the SDGs. Affiliated with UNDP, the UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), with its ability to provide credit guarantees, is positioned to act as a catalyst in high-risk markets, as well as focusing on underserved groups and community, including Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). Working with UNDP, the Fund supports projects enabling sustainable development in regions and markets that often face significant barriers to attracting private and public capital.
In China, UNDP is exploring new blended-finance partnerships with national and multilateral development banks, including AIIB, using our grant finance to unlock loans. This mirrors the COP30 Action Agenda and its emphasis on “unleashing enablers and accelerators” across finance, technology and capacity-building.
Last but not least, global cooperation is pivotal. Climate change does not recognise national borders. No country is immune, and no country can address it alone.
By sharing policy innovations, technical expertise, and financing solutions across developing countries, we accelerate learning and scale what works.
China, with its climate finance experience and growing role as a provider of climate-related funds, is well-positioned to support these efforts. Its newly issued Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) that cover all sectors and all greenhouse gases as well as the announcement on possible financing contributions to the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF) are welcome signals in this direction, which can serve as a basis for an upward trajectory in the future.
UNDP stands ready to continue supporting partners in China and across the world to meet these goals and ensure that COP30 is a success. As part of our Climate Promise, we are working with over 140 countries and territories to curb emissions and advance climate action, through a $2 billion portfolio – the world’s largest offer to support national climate pledges under the Paris Agreement.
The Road from Baku to Belém is not just about larger numbers – it is about aligning systems, so climate action and human development reinforce each other. If we anchor ambition in credible plans, match it with finance at scale, and build the platforms to execute, COP30 can be where pledges begin translating into measurable impact.
Together, let’s show we’re all committed, and able, to deliver that.
Thank you!
[i]国家防灾减灾救灾委员会办公室 应急管理部发布2024年全国自然灾害基本情况_部门动态_中国政府网
[ii] https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2024
[iii] UNDP (2025) 'Bringing Everyone to the Table: Bridging the finance-development divide', Sustainable finance hub, 4 March. Available at: https://sdgfinance.undp.org/news-events/bringing-everyone-table-bridging-finance-development-divide
[iv] 0UNDP leverages every dollar to promote investments of nearly $60 for Sustainable Development, shows new report | United Nations Development Programme
[v] https://www.gov.cn/lianbo/bumen/202502/content_7004354.htm
[vi] Climate Bonds | China Sustainable Debt State of the Market Report 2024
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