Scotland has announced a new round of funding to support climate-vulnerable communities across the Global South, strengthening its role as a leading voice for climate justice on the world stage.
The investment forms part of the Scottish Government’s £36 million Climate Justice Fund and was confirmed by Climate Action Secretary Gillian Martin at the COP30 UN Climate Summit in Brazil.
A total of £540,000 will be directed to nine organisations across Latin America, supporting Indigenous communities who are facing the accelerating effects of climate change despite contributing least to global emissions.
The funding will help protect forests and lakes in the Andes, support women and marginalised groups, and preserve ancestral languages, cultures and knowledge at risk of disappearing as climate-driven migration increases.
Additional support will help communities prepare for the known impacts of extreme weather, from drought to flooding.
The package also strengthens Scotland’s work on human rights, poverty, and displacement, with climate change now recognised as a major driver of global inequality.
This includes £150,000 for the UN Special Rapporteur on Climate Change and Human Rights, and £100,000 for a Regions4 pilot project helping an at-risk community in the Global South improve resilience to food and water insecurity.
Gillian Martin said Scotland’s commitment reflects the central injustice of the climate crisis.
“The injustice at the heart of the global climate crisis is why Scotland became the first country in the world to establish a Climate Justice Fund more than a decade ago,” she said.
“The impacts of climate change are already being felt by communities across the globe, and this funding will support those who have done the least to cause the crisis but are feeling its effects the most acutely.”
She added that Scotland is determined to amplify the voices of those most affected.
“At COP30, I have advocated for a stronger role for devolved governments in international climate processes and policies,” she said.
“We will continue to play our part in tackling the climate crisis here in Scotland and across the world.”
The Climate Justice Fund includes a £5 million non-economic loss and damage programme announced at COP27, the first commitment of its kind from a Global North government.
Successful applicants for this year’s Latin American programme include organisations in Bolivia, Peru and Colombia, supporting projects led by Indigenous youth, women’s groups and community activists.
Their work ranges from restoring damaged forest and lake ecosystems to protecting mental health, inter-generational culture, and ancestral agricultural knowledge, all areas increasingly threatened by climate-driven disruption.
The Scottish Government says the funding reflects Scotland’s belief that climate policy must address inequality at its core, not just emissions.
Domestically, Scotland recently published its draft Climate Change Plan, setting out more than 150 actions across all major sectors through to 2040.
The plan is the first in the UK to include a full breakdown of the costs and benefits of its policies.
With climate impacts accelerating worldwide, Scotland is positioning itself as a country willing not only to cut emissions at home but also to stand with those who face the greatest losses.
