IDRC at COP30

Central banks driving inclusive green finance for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises

10:00-10:45 a.m.│Canada Pavilion, Blue Zone

Central banks and financial regulators are emerging as important actors in shaping how climate finance reaches the real economy, especially micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) that form the backbone of employment and livelihoods in many developing and emerging economies. Through their mandates on financial inclusion, stability and market development, regulators are uniquely positioned to design and implement policies that remove barriers to green finance and ensure that MSMEs, including those led by women, can access the resources they need to adapt, build resilience and contribute to low-carbon growth. This side event, co-hosted with the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI), will share the key outcomes of a joint AFI and IDRC global research initiative on inclusive green finance. It will feature speakers from AFI, IDRC, Bank Al-Maghrib and Bangladesh Bank, highlighting lessons from two in-country action research projects and a global policy toolkit. Discussions will focus on practical solutions and scalable policy recommendations, showing how central banks and financial regulators can close climate finance gaps, safeguard financial inclusion and promote an inclusive and just transition.

Building resilient futures: Locally led solutions for loss and damage

10:00-11:15 a.m.│Disaster resilient infrastructure (DRI) Pavilion, Blue Zone

Co-hosted with the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), Coalition for Disaster Resilience Infrastructure (CRDI) and other partners, this side event will explore how locally led solutions can drive system-wide resilience and address loss and damage in climate vulnerable countries. Drawing on evidence from the Alliance for Locally Led Approaches for Transformative Action on Loss and Damage and ASPIRE programs, it will highlight how linking anticipatory social protection, community-driven infrastructure and resilient planning delivers high returns, saving up to five times in avoided losses while strengthening livelihoods and food security. The discussion will bring together government leaders, development finance institutions and civil society to share experiences from Somalia, Senegal, Brazil and Bangladesh, and outline pathways to scale through the DRI Action Agenda and the Fund for responding to Loss and Damage. The event will conclude with a joint commitment to advance a locally led, inclusive and finance-ready roadmap for resilient infrastructure and loss and damage solutions across least-developed countries and small-island developing states.

A care-centred just transition: Challenges and opportunities

4:00-4:45 p.m.│WGEO Pavilion, Blue Zone

Co-hosted with the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), the Global Alliance for Care and the World Green Economy Organization (WGEO), this session will highlight the central role of care work — both paid and unpaid, formal and informal — as essential social infrastructure that sustains life, communities and ecosystems in the face of escalating climate crises. It will explore how centring care in just transition strategies and climate finance not only addresses historical gender inequalities but also expands the scope of climate policy towards inclusive, resilient and life-sustaining economies. During this session, IDRC will also launch a new report on mobilizing climate finance for care.

Care, climate and the just transition

6:30-8:00 p.m.│Official UNFCCC side event, room 6, Blue Zone

This session will shed light on the gendered impacts of climate change and increase understanding of the structural challenges and opportunities that arise when care becomes central to how we address the climate crisis. The panel will examine the intersections between care systems and climate policies, identifying how climate change reshapes care needs and labour patterns and highlight how centring paid and unpaid care work can strengthen social and environmental resilience and advance gender equality. The session will propose policy directions to integrate care into just transition frameworks, broadening their scope beyond industrial sectors and formal employment. IDRC will also launch its new programming on Climate and Care Regional Hubs. The session is co-hosted with UNRISD; the Global Alliance for Care; UN Women; the Women’s Environment and Development Organization; the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; Fundacion AVINA; and the Governments of Brazil, Australia, South Africa and the Philippines. 

Centring care in just transitions and climate action: Elevating grassroots voices

5:00-8:00 p.m.│Care Pavilion, Espaço EcoAmazônia, Rua dos Tamoios 264 - Jurunas, Belém

As the world grapples with the escalating impacts of climate change, the urgency of a just transition has never been greater. Yet care work — both paid and unpaid — remains largely invisible in climate policy and action. The care-climate nexus highlights how climate change exacerbates care burdens, particularly for women and marginalized communities, while also underscoring the transformative potential of care systems in building resilient, equitable societies. The Climate and Care Initiative, supported by IDRC, Fundacion AVINA, UNRISD and the Global Alliance for Care, has been generating evidence and working to elevate the voices of grassroots movements and organizations that are pioneering gender-transformative and climate-resilient care solutions. This event will serve as a platform to showcase their experiences, insights and policy demands, and to advocate for the integration of care into climate action and just transition frameworks. The session is co-hosted with Fundacion AVINA, and UNRISD, with the support of the Global Alliance for Care, and will be followed by an art exhibition on the intersections between climate and care and a closing reception.

Unlocking climate finance and strengthening accountability for locally led adaptation 

9:30-11:00 a.m.│Peru resilience hub, Blue Zone l Livestream the session at this link

Co-hosted with the World Resources Institute, this session will bring together innovative leaders from Africa and Latin America who are actively experimenting with a variety of ‘keys’ that can open doors for adaptation finance that supports locally led action. Success stories will be shared where out-of-the-box approaches to capacity strengthening have mobilized funds from a wide variety of sources, from the Adaptation Fund to national governments, from philanthropies to the private sector and from communities themselves. These funds are being channeled to national governments, local governments, multi-stakeholder governance platforms and youth entrepreneurs and are, in some cases, even located in the communities that are raising the funds themselves. 

From Equality to Empowerment: Making the energy transition inclusive

1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. | Include Pavilion 

As countries accelerate the clean energy transition, there is growing recognition that energy policies often overlook the needs of women, youth, and marginalized communities. Without deliberate efforts to integrate social justice into energy policy design and implementation, the energy transition risks deepening inequality, including exclusion from access to energy, employment, and business opportunities. Yet the energy transition also presents a real opportunity for transformative change through positive impacts on women, youth, and marginalized groups. This event, hosted with the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) will invite experts from the energy, gender, development, business, and government sectors to share experience, innovations, and research on gender equity and social inclusion in clean energy transitions, particularly across three themes of clean cooking, solar irrigation, and just transition. We’ll bring together researchers and practitioners to demonstrate that energy policy can better reflect the needs of women, youth, and disadvantaged groups through evidence-based and locally informed solutions.

Towards just and localized approaches to nature-based solutions: A showcase of inclusive approaches from the front lines

1:15-2:00 p.m.│Canada Pavilion, Blue Zone

Based on concrete examples, this event will explore just and localized nature-based solutions (NbS) delving into both the value of implementing NbS at a local and regional level, as well as key considerations for operationalizing and implementing strategies on the ground. This event will use an innovative combination of speed talks and an interactive fishbowl methodology designed to democratize the conversation and will facilitate an exchange between panelists and participants. Ultimately, the event will showcase Canadian investment into, and foster a deeper understanding of, how to design just, effective and equitable NbS. 

Justice-centred adaptation: Locally led climate action across knowledge systems and contexts 

6:30-8:00 p.m.│Official UNFCC side event, room 6, Blue Zone

This session will explore justice-centred adaptation by bridging Indigenous knowledge, youth leadership, rights, finance, creativity and policy, offering concrete examples to demonstrate how equitable, context-aware solutions can transform how we plan, fund and implement adaptation.

Women’s leadership and innovative finance: Driving climate resilience and sustainable development

10:45 – 11:30 a.m. | Canada Pavilion, Blue Zone

This panel, co-hosted with the Institute for Development Studies, will explore how women’s leadership and inclusive financial innovation serve as powerful levers for climate resilience and sustainable development. The session will highlight concrete examples internationally, focusing on the intersection of gender equity, entrepreneurship, and climate action. 

Country platforms: Mobilizing climate finance in emerging economies

11:15-12:15 a.m.│RCF pavilion 

Hosted by Regional Climate Foundations (RCF)

Environmental defenders and communities: A cross-cutting priority in climate negotiations and decisions 

11:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m.│Side event room 8, Blue Zone 

Hosted by Global Witness

Equitable pathways for adaptation finance

3:00-4:00 p.m.│RCF Pavilion

Hosted by RCF, Shakti, the India Climate Collaborative and Jan Sahas

Panel discussion and reception — Leaders Network for Environmental Activists and Defenders (LEAD) launch with civil society

4:30-9:15 p.m.│Grassroots movement for climate venue 

Hosted by Global Witness

CDKN-Senegal side event 

4:30-5:30 p.m.│Senegal Pavilion

Hosted by the Climate & Knowledge Development Network (CDKN) and ENDA ENERGIE

Building resilient futures: Locally led solutions for loss and damage

10:00-11:15 a.m.│DRI Pavilion/PV-C100, Blue Zone

Hosted by IIED and CDRI

Official Launch of LEAD 

1:00-2:30 p.m│Ford Pavilion, Blue Zone

Hosted by the European Center for Not-For-Profit Law and the International Center for Not-For-Profit Law

UN Decade of Sustainable Transport 2026-2035 and climate action

10:30 a.m.–12:00 p.m.│Sustainable Development Goals Pavilion 

Hosted by the SLOCAT Partnership and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs

Trade’s contribution in advancing the global climate agenda: Examples for collective action

4:15-5:15 p.m.│RCF Pavilion

Hosted by Coalition of Trade Ministers on Climate and the European Climate Foundation

Integral ecology and climate justice: Voices in the struggle for change

6:30-8:00 p.m.│Side event room 3, Blue Zone 

Hosted by Environmental Science for Social Change with Boston College and the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund

Counting what matters: Integrating non-economic loss and damage into global climate action

Time TBA│Resilience Hub Pavilion, Blue Zone

Hosted by CDKN and SouthSouthNorth

Side event — Template of national strategy on internal displacement management

10:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m.│Bangladesh Pavilion 

Hosted by the Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit with the Ministry of Environment of Bangladesh

World cafe — Empowering change: Building capacities for just energy transition 

3:30 p.m.│Capacity-building hub, Blue Zone

Hosted by Fundacion AVINA

Saturday, November 15 and Sunday, November 16

Care Pavilion in Belém

This space is designed to spotlight the intersection of climate justice, care work and community wellbeing. Inauguration breakfast and opening ceremony to take place Saturday, November 15, from 8:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. 

Espaço EcoAmazônia: Rua dos Tamoios 264 - Jurunas, Belém. 

Hosted by the Global Alliance for Care, in partnership with Procomún and the Climate and Care Initiative, supported by IDRC

Official UNFCCC side event — One UN for multi-level climate action: Unlocking finance and implementation for Nationally Determined Contributions and National Adaptation Plans

Time and venue TBA

Hosted by the United Nations University with contributions from Fundacion AVINA

Nature at the nexus: Accelerating ecosystem-based adaptation at COP30 and beyond

6:00-6:45 p.m.│WGEO Pavilion, Blue Zone 

Hosted by CDKN and Friends of Ecosystem-based Adaptation

Unlocking climate finance: From the Baku to Belém roadmap to systems transformation

Time TBA│RCF Pavilion

Hosted by RCF