Corinna Gilfillan –

In May 2024, I had the opportunity to participate in the 2nd Symposium on Supranational Responses to Corruption: Integrity in Climate Finance and Action held at the London School of Economics. This symposium, organized by the World Bank, Transparency International, and the Green Climate Fund, convened experts and practitioners from both the anti-corruption and climate communities to discuss and develop ideas for tackling integrity risks to ensure effective climate finance and action.

At the symposium, I presented the findings of a research project by The UNCAC Coalition’s Working Group on Environmental Crime and Corruption and the Wildlife Justice Commission. Working with Lisa Hartevelt, the Chair of the Working Group, and with invaluable support from the International Lawyers Project, we researched the interlinkages between corruption, crimes that affect the environment and climate change, and specific policy recommendations to address these interlinkages at the global, regional, and national levels. Dr Juanita Olaya Garcia, Chair of the Coalition’s Victims of Corruption Working Group, presented at the Symposium on another important aspect: ensuring reparations for integrity failures in climate finance and action.

The Symposium generated interesting discussions and ideas about building a supranational response to prevent corruption and environmental crimes from undermining climate projects that are urgently needed to tackle the climate crisis. Interacting with experts from climate fora helped to generate new ideas for how to advance the issue in anti-corruption fora further and to inform thinking about how to make inroads at the UNFCCC, where integrity issues have not received sufficient attention. 

The stakes are high to get this right. Significant sums of funds will need to be invested, involving many sectors that are vulnerable to corruption, such as infrastructure, natural resources, and energy. The aim is to scale up financing to developing countries, from both public and private sources, to US$1.35 trillion per year by 2035 from both public and private finances. 

One of the themes that emerged from the discussions is the need to bolster relevant multilateral fora focused on combating anti-corruption, organized crime, and other issues in a coordinated and systematic manner. Multi-stakeholder approaches involving diverse stakeholders, including governments, civil society organizations, the private sector, investigative journalists, investors, donors, intergovernmental organizations, and international financial institutions, are also crucial to mobilize action and implement solutions.

The 2nd Symposium Report on Supranational Responses to Corruption: Integrity in Climate Finance and Action was recently released. It summarizes the 16 papers presented and discussed at the Symposium, providing a comprehensive overview of areas that need attention and detailed recommendations for ensuring effective climate responses. 

The report recommendations offer a way forward for advancing action on this issue at the global and national levels, which include:

• Strengthening international cooperation by aligning relevant international agreements, including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change UNFCCC), the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) and the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC), to address the interlinkages between corruption, organized crime, and climate change.
• Integrating the issue of integrity risks as a core agenda item in the UNFCCC agenda and including anti-corruption measures into Nationally Determined Contributions and Biennial Transparency Reports.
• Ensuring beneficial ownership transparency to combat illicit financial flows, including by promoting the adoption of global beneficial ownership registries. The UNCAC Coalition believes that beneficial ownership registries must be publicly available to be impactful, enabling civil society, journalists, and other actors to use the information.
• Improve governance and oversight mechanisms for the voluntary carbon market, where integrity risks are significant due to a lack of adequate oversight and regulation.
• Establishing mechanisms to recover the losses due to corruption and integrity failures, for example, providing reparations to communities that have directly been affected. 

We are excited to draw upon the report’s key findings and recommendations to raise awareness and build support for strong and concerted action at the global, regional, and national levels to tackle this issue. The UNCAC Conference of States Parties in December 2025 and the UNFCCC Conference of Parties in November 2025 present important opportunities to combat the risks posed by corruption, organized crime, and climate change to ensure effective climate responses.