NEW YORK: Pakistan has been selected as one of the first five pilot countries for the COP31 Presidency’s Climate Implementation Bridge (BRIDGE) initiative, aimed at linking climate finance with bankable projects and strengthening national implementation capacity.
The announcement was made at New York Climate Week, where the COP31 Presidency outlined details of its flagship initiatives on climate finance and resilient cities as part of its implementation-focused Action Agenda.
Ethiopia, Fiji, Indonesia, Pakistan and Uzbekistan are the first five pilot countries that will work with BRIDGE to develop country-led pathways connecting climate and development priorities with finance-ready project portfolios.
The initiative, delivered with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), will help participating countries turn climate and development priorities into investment-ready projects, identify implementation bottlenecks and strengthen their investment readiness.
The COP31 Presidency said feedback from the pilot countries would help shape the initiative’s future delivery and scale-up. Developing countries, particularly Small Island Developing States and Least Developed Countries, have expressed strong interest in the initiative.
Separately, the COP31 Presidency launched the Sustainable Urban Resilience Financing Facility (SURFF), developed by ILBANK in partnership with UN-Habitat and the World Bank.
SURFF aims to help low- and middle-income countries and cities translate climate commitments into investable urban resilience programmes and projects while mobilising public and private finance and strengthening local implementation capacity.
The facility will operate through three pillars: the Resilient Cities Country Platform, the Resilient Cities Centre of Excellence and the International Resilient Cities Dialogue.
The COP31 Presidency said the initiatives were part of efforts to make the annual climate summit more focused on implementation and to address gaps between climate commitments, financing and delivery.
Türkiye’s Minister of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change Murat Kurum said ambitious climate plans could not succeed without adequate financing, stressing the need to turn plans into investable projects and match them with finance.
The initiatives build on the COP31 Presidency’s Action Agenda launched earlier this week, including the 35-by-35 Global Electrification Pledge and a new pledge and initiative on climate-responsible artificial intelligence.