South Africa’s cabinet will convene next week to finalise its stance ahead of the COP30 climate summit in Brazil this November, with officials warning that developed nations are failing to meet funding pledges for poorer countries, as reported by Bloomberg.

The Conference of the Parties (COP) is the annual gathering of nearly 200 governments under the United Nations climate framework, where global climate policy is negotiated.

Environment minister Dion George told the Presidential Climate Commission in Johannesburg on Friday that wealthy nations must honour commitments to finance climate action. “The finance issue obviously is a big one. Crucially, our message has to be done as you say. If the developed economy countries are going to have promised money that they would pay, they must do that,” he said.

President Donald Trump’s administration has sharply reduced US support for environmental programmes since his return to the White House in January, while European governments have scaled back climate funding as military spending rises in response to heightened geopolitical tensions. “Some of the countries have in fact said they’re very constrained financially, because they need to spend more money on defence in Europe,” George added.

Wealthy nations pledged at last year’s summit to deliver 100 billion US dollars annually for developing countries’ climate action, but that target has not been met. They have since committed to increasing support to 300 billion US dollars annually by 2035.

George also criticised the European Union’s carbon border adjustment mechanism, which imposes levies on carbon-intensive imports. He argued the measure would harm South Africa’s industrial economy and penalise the global south. “It is a unilateral climate action and that matter needs to be raised. We are moving in the right direction, but we do not believe that CBAM is a useful mechanism, certainly for us and the global south,” he said.