Kreetika Kumar 
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Professor Biman Prasad
The reality is that climate finance continues to be tied up in external interests, impacted by inter-organization competition and overlapping mandates, and shaped by external preferences, concepts, and priorities.
This has been highlighted by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Professor Biman Prasad while speaking at the high-level meeting on climate finance during the COP 29 in Baku.
Professor Prasad says as it stands, our officials are spending more time steering small projects and singular initiatives—managing climate finance access proposals and processes—than they are overseeing the delivery of specific national policies.
He adds that the piecemeal approach flies in the face of the whole-of-government climate mainstreaming approaches that they as parties have promoted for decades.
Professor Prasad says rather than building our capacity, in most cases, climate finance in its current form is straining it.
He adds that the special needs and circumstances of SIDS and LDCs need to be given due treatment within the new collective quantified goal because this is about equity.
The DPM says the recognition of special circumstances under the UNFCCC and Paris Agreement is about leveling the playing field and not about creating undue advantage.
He adds the NCQG needs to be understood as the engine that will power transition and climate protection.
Professor Prasad says the 1.5 degree Celsius temperature goal and the Paris Agreement itself will not be deliverable from both an economic and scientific perspective if we do not invest right.
