Climate Action in Fragile and Conflict-Affected Situations: Insights from Country Requests
Conflict and climate change are interconnected. Climate change exacerbates security risks through more frequent and severe natural disasters, forced migration and growing competition over land, water and other natural resources.
Conflict, in turn, makes sustained climate action more challenging. Despite these pressures, countries in fragile and conflict-affected situations (FCAS) are increasingly seeking support to strengthen climate action aligned with their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and deliver development gains for the communities most at risk.
A new NDC Partnership insight brief analyzes more than 2,000 requests from 24 countries in FCAS to understand their priorities and where gaps in support remain. The analysis highlights rising demand and emerging opportunities for the NDC Partnership to strengthen assistance to these countries.
Key findings include:
There is high demand and potential for greater support.
Twenty‑four countries in FCAS have submitted requests for support to the NDC Partnership, representing 29% of all requests circulated through the NDC Partnership. These requests have a support rate of 51%, slightly below the global average of 55%. Within this overall trend, conflict‑affected countries receive support at lower rates than countries experiencing institutional or social fragility.
Of requests from countries in FCAS, most requests to the NDC Partnership are from countries in Sub‑Saharan Africa, with additional demand from the Middle East, North Africa and the Pacific Islands. Significant support gaps persist across all regions.
Countries in FCAS are prioritizing whole‑of‑government support across mitigation and adaptation.
One of the clearest trends is that requests for support are largely crosscutting, encompassing both mitigation and adaptation. Requests for adaptation support stand out as an area of unmet need, with 57% of requests going unsupported.
Compared to all countries, countries in FCAS more frequently request assistance to strengthen capacity across the whole of government, including engaging subnational governments and designing multi-sectoral approaches to climate action. This reflects a core challenge of countries experiencing fragility: limited institutional capacity.
Sectoral priorities include energy, agriculture and forestry and other land use.
Most requests from countries in FCAS are not sector specific. However, among sector‑specific requests, energy, agriculture and forestry and other land use (FOLU) are the most common. Countries in FCAS also request support related to waste and industry more frequently compared to all countries.
Across sectors, requests related to transport, waste and water have the lowest support rates.
Finance is a near-universal priority.
Nearly all countries in FCAS have requested support related to finance, whether to design investment plans, integrate NDCs into fiscal or economy policies or build pipelines of bankable projects. Yet these types of requests also have some of the lowest support rates, especially for project and program financing and resource mobilization.
This reflects a systemic challenge: Climate finance rarely reaches countries in fragile contexts quickly enough. Project requirements are often stringent, data collection is difficult and the scale and structure of many funds do not align with the realities on the ground. Countries are seeking support to navigate these barriers.
Implications for the NDC Partnership
The findings point to several areas where the NDC Partnership can deliver even greater value. Specially, the NDC Partnership can:
- Build up opportunities for sustained collaboration — including embedded advisors and coordinated engagement with partners with expertise in FCAS — to help build durable institutional capacity.
- Prioritize the needs of vulnerable communities, women and youth when supporting finance mobilization to ensure that assistance leads to equitable and sustainable outcomes.
- Ensure climate action is tailored to contexts of conflict and fragility, including humanitarian priorities, by facilitating knowledge exchange that links climate action with development and urgent humanitarian needs.
- Strengthen local capacity through knowledge exchange that enhances conflict‑sensitive expertise and supports the integration of climate priorities into government planning.
Countries in FCAS are increasingly articulating their climate priorities and seeking targeted support. These priorities reflect the need to address both climate risks and broader development and humanitarian challenges. By aligning support with these needs — and drawing on the full range of expertise available through the NDC Partnership — climate action can be better tailored to contexts where vulnerabilities are highest.