UN agencies launch platform to secure $3 billion in climate risk financing

UN agencies launched the UN Disaster Risk Financing Platform during COP31 in Antalya, Türkiye, to secure over $3 billion in risk financing by 2030.

The initiative seeks to protect 75 million people and their livelihoods from natural hazards and climate shocks by making disaster response funds more predictable.

The platform coordinates efforts between the Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Organization for Migration, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the UN Children's Fund, the UN refugee agency, and the World Food Programme. These agencies plan to pool data and share expertise to pair predictive analysis with available funds. This approach allows early warnings to be converted into anticipatory actions before disasters strike.

The initiative intends to work with financial markets and the insurance industry to lower costs as they scale up financing. OCHA says the current system for disaster funding remains slow and fragmented despite disasters becoming more predictable. To address this, the agencies will combine existing resources with private sector support to maximize the impact of every dollar. The platform has already produced results by establishing insurance policies for anticipatory action programmes.

These policies provide a financial safety net that allows agencies to act during floods, storms, or heatwaves. However, pre-arranged financing currently accounts for less than two per cent of global humanitarian financing.