Global Partners Unite to Accelerate Climate Finance for Women Entrepreneurs
COP30 Call to action to scale up funding for women entrepreneurs driving resilience and food security
JOINT MEDIA STATEMENT
Belém, Brazil – COP30: At COP30, global leaders and development finance partners collectively called to accelerate finance for women entrepreneurs on the frontlines of climate adaptation and resilience. Despite their proven impact, less than 1% of global climate finance currently supports women-led initiatives.
The call for COP to accelerate gender-responsive climate finance and scale up direct funding for women entrepreneurs and farmers comes from global leaders from the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi), the Green Climate Fund, Project Dandelion, and the Gates Foundation, the UN World Food Programme and UNIDO, with the support of the UFCCC High-Level Champions, in a collaborative effort coordinated by Climate Bridges.
Building on the Baku-to-Belém Roadmap to 1.3 trillion and the Gender Action Plan to be adopted at COP30, partners committed to developing new metrics and financing mechanisms to ensure that resources reach women driving local climate and food-security solutions.
We can—and must—be more ambitious in scaling up climate finance for women, especially women-led microenterprises, small and medium enterprises, and smallholders who are critical to building a climate-smart future. As the green and blue economies take shape, this is a pivotal moment to position women at their center, as innovators, leaders, and drivers of change. Their agency, entrepreneurial spirit, and resilience are indispensable to our food systems and economies.
The group of large financial institutions and UN organizations came together around common messaging to:
Advocate for a stronger focus on gender-responsive climate finance, and in particular finance for women entrepreneurs, in COP Gender and Finance Track documents both at COP30 in Belém and during COP31;
Improve benchmarking and tracking of how much climate finance is going to the hands of women entrepreneurs and farmers, including setting ambitious targets for COP31;
Promote and support financial mechanisms that will expand how much climate finance is getting directly into the hands of women entrepreneurs.
Leaders from partner organizations emphasized the urgency and shared commitment to advancing this agenda:
“Investing in women entrepreneurs, in particular women smallholder farmers, is one of the smartest investments we can make. It is a triple win: advancing gender equality, strengthening food security, and improving livelihoods. When women gain access to capital and markets, they don’t just lift their families, they strengthen the resilience and sustainability of entire economies.” Mary Robinson, Co-founder of Project Dandelion, founding member of The Elders
“It’s time for the global development community to close the finance gap for women entrepreneurs delivering climate solutions. Their ideas and businesses are driving cleaner, more resilient growth, tackling some of the toughest challenges facing our planet while creating jobs that strengthen communities. Since 2017, We-Fi has helped get over $6 billion into the hands of over a half-million women-led small and medium businesses, working in over 80 countries. But this is not nearly enough to close the $1.7 trillion finance gap and ensure women are positioned to contribute solutions and thrive in the emerging green and blue economies. Looking ahead, this model shows how investing in women delivers compounded returns: for people, for prosperity, and for the planet.” Wendy Teleki, Head of the We-Fi Secretariat
“Let’s address the finance gap: less than 1% of climate finance is going to the hands of women entrepreneurs. Yet investing in women entrepreneurs across agriculture, clean energy, and other sectors of the green economy can unlock triple win opportunities for gender equality, jobs and food systems resilience. Together with other financial institutions, we could mobilize 50 million to further leverage 1 billion of funding for public-private partnerships directly benefiting women entrepreneurs around the world by 2030. We will chart the path forward with key milestones and objectives to be adopted by COP31.” Elise Buckle, Founder & CEO of Climate Bridges, Senior Advisor to We-Fi, International Gender Champion, Member of the Club of Rome
“The Green Climate Fund is committed to elevating gender-responsive climate action to a core programmatic growth area. We join partners here and across the wider ecosystem in supporting expanded and scaled-up climate finance flows for women entrepreneurs in the green and blue economies. Together, we can set an ambitious investment target by next year and work towards establishing a common metric—a compass to rally, to guide and to track progress. Our ecosystem has already demonstrated both the value and the demand for gender-lens investing, evidenced by the rapid uptake of every pledge put out in this space to date. A global metric will only accelerate this momentum, mobilize the international community, and ensure that climate finance reaches women entrepreneurs and farmers who are shaping a sustainable future.” Eleni Kyrou, Head of Sustainability and Inclusion, Green Climate Fund
“Long-term food security depends on recognizing that our food systems and the climate are deeply intertwined. The humanitarian sector together with governments, the private sector and academia must invest in innovative, risk-informed solutions and prioritize preparedness, protection, and efficiency before climate shocks strike.” Richard Choularton, World Food Programme, Director of the Climate and Resilience Service
“Investing in women's economic opportunities - particularly for women farmers and small-scale entrepreneurs - strengthens the foundation of climate-resilient societies, especially in the most vulnerable countries impacted by climate change.” Greta Bull, Director of Women’s Economic Empowerment at the Gates Foundation. The Foundation last week announced a $1.4 billion investment designed to help smallholder farmers adapt to the accelerating effects of climate change.
“Inclusive climate action is not only the right thing to do—it is the smart thing to do. By unlocking the full potential of all people, we accelerate innovation, resilience, and progress. Women are among the most powerful agents of change, yet they continue to receive only a fraction of the financing and technical support to scale their innovations. This must change. Closing this gap requires reshaping existing policies, adapting financial instruments to the realities of women innovators and strengthening national ecosystems so that women-led innovations can grow and thrive. As we move beyond COP30, UNIDO stands ready to work with all partners to expand access to finance for women-led solutions and ensure that the industrial transformation delivers opportunities and tangible impact for all.” Rana Ghoneim, Director, Division of Energy and Climate Action, UNIDO
The partners also highlighted new collaborative platforms to track finance flows, strengthen accountability, and build a shared evidence base for gender-responsive investment—laying the groundwork for a global Call to Action ahead of COP31.
Panel of speakers at “Investing in Women: Women Entrepreneurs Driving Climate Innovation & Adaptation”, held at COP30 on 14 November 2025.
Notes to editors:
The high-level partnership event “Investing in Women: Women Entrepreneurs Driving Climate Innovation & Adaptation” was held in COP30 on 14 November.
A dialogue to advance “Empowering Women Entrepreneurs for a Climate-Resilient Future” hosted by IDB will take place on November 17 at 5:00pm local time at the Multilateral Development Bank Pavilion with the presence of Mary Robinson and other partners quoted. Press welcome to attend.
Media contacts:
Elise Buckle, Senior Advisor to We-Fi, International Gender Champion, Founder and CEO of Climate Bridges, elise@climate-bridges.org , +41 79 774 27 12 - UNFCCC Head of delegation COP30 in Belém
Sean Ding, External Affairs Officer, We-Fi Secretariat, sding1@worldbank.org - World Bank HQ, in Washington DC
Rosa Argent, COP30 Senior Communications Advisor, Climate Bridges, rosa@climate-bridges.org, +41 789 66 14 34 - in Geneva, UN diplomatic centre
