From mangrove restoration in Mexico to replacing oil-fired power plants with renewable energy in Egypt; from electric public transport in Indonesia to socially just mine-land rehabilitation in South Africa — these initiatives reflect the diversity and complexity of the challenges the international community must overcome to meet global climate and biodiversity goals by 2050.

Since 2008, the German government has supported partner countries in the Global South in advancing ambitious climate policies and effective solutions through the International Climate Initiative (IKI).

Our strength: integrating climate and biodiversity

The climate crisis and biodiversity loss are deeply intertwined global challenges. For this reason, the IKI adopts an approach that considers the synergies between mitigation, adaptation, and nature conservation, promoting integrated and transformative responses.

The initiative structures its support across four main funding areas:

Many IKI projects are cross-cutting, combining several of these areas within a single proposal. This enables the initiative to generate long-term impacts aligned with global goals and with the national priorities of partner countries.

Strategic orientation through 2030

Starting in 2024, the IKI began focusing its efforts on even more specific fields of action, with the goal of maximizing the global impact of international cooperation on climate and biodiversity. The new strategy reinforces its focus on priority countries — nations that simultaneously concentrate high greenhouse gas emissions and rich biodiversity, thus increasing the potential for sustainable transformation.

The IKI’s four funding areas remain at the core of its work, but now have more clearly defined scopes. Mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions places stronger emphasis on supporting the development of long-term strategies and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), energy transition, industrial decarbonization, and sustainable mobility. Meanwhile, adaptation to climate change prioritizes national adaptation plans (NAPs), ecosystem-based approaches, and the strengthening of resilience and safety for vulnerable communities and territories.

Another key field of action is natural carbon sinks, with efforts directed toward protecting forests and peatlands, restoring degraded landscapes, and advancing nature-based solutions. Finally, biodiversity conservation focuses on the implementation of national biodiversity action plans (NBSAPs), highlighting the rights and leadership of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs), as well as habitat protection and reducing the loss of biological diversity.

These four areas are interconnected through a cross-cutting commitment to climate resilience and socioecological transformation at a global scale. To further support this direction, the IKI strategy toward 2030 also incorporates priority international alliances, such as the Climate Club, Just Energy Transition Partnerships (JETP), the NDC Partnership, and the NBSAP Accelerator Partnership.

Coordination and partners

Within the German federal government, the International Climate Initiative (IKI) is anchored in the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUKN). In coordination with BMUV, individual projects may also be commissioned and implemented by the Federal Foreign Office (AA).

IKI activities are carried out in close consultation with the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and are aligned with the German government’s Foreign Climate Policy Strategy.

The IKI is built on close cooperation with partner-country governments and a diverse implementation structure to manage the approximately 400 projects currently underway. In other words, the diversity of implementing organisations reflects the complexity and plurality of the climate and environmental challenges addressed.

The federal public company Zukunft – Umwelt – Gesellschaft (ZUG) gGmbH serves as the IKI’s programme management agency, providing technical support, overseeing programme management, and conducting monitoring and evaluation of funded projects.

The IKI in Brazil

Since 2008, Brazil has been one of the priority countries of the International Climate Initiative (IKI). With one of the greatest biodiversities on the planet and a strategic role in the global climate agenda, the country offers unique conditions for implementing solutions with high environmental, economic, and social impact.

Over more than a decade of cooperation, the IKI has allocated over 235 million euros to Brazil through bilateral, regional, and global projects. In bilateral initiatives alone, more than 51 million euros have been invested to date — with an additional 63.7 million euros planned through the national call for proposals (country call).

These resources are directed toward the IKI’s four funding areas:

Currently, 47 IKI projects are underway in Brazil — 14 bilateral and 33 regional or global — developed in partnership with a broad network of local and international institutions and subnational governments. Priority themes include industrial decarbonization, climate adaptation, and forest conservation.

The implementation of the IKI in Brazil involves coordination with several partner ministries, including:

Among the implementing and technical partner organizations are institutions such as AFD, CIFOR, CPI, German Caritas Association, GIZ, IDB, IIASA, IUCN, KfW, UNDP, UNEP, UNU-EHS, World Bank Group, WRI Brazil, WWF, among others.

The integrated and multisectoral work of the IKI in Brazil is strengthened by an interface project, which supports political dialogue, fosters synergies among the portfolio’s initiatives, and enhances the visibility, coherence, and strategic alignment of the cooperation between Brazil and Germany in climate and biodiversity.