Climate change is expensive. How should the world pay to fight it?

If one thing became clear at the COP26 gathering of world leaders this month, it’s that tackling climate change is going to be expensive.

Making the leap to decarbonized energy is pricey. So, too, is adapting to a warming planet that unleashes more deadly wildfires, storms, and heat waves. Meanwhile, many of the communities already bearing the brunt of climate disasters are among those least equipped to foot the bill. 

All of this means that “climate finance,” the money needed to both fight climate change and try to adjust to it, is increasingly taking the spotlight. And under that glare, it is revealing the underlying global inequities that make collective climate action so challenging. 

At the United Nations climate change conference here, delegates from Africa, Asia, and Latin America chided wealthy countries for not fulfilling a promise to drum