This document contains the programme budget for the biennium 2024–2025 proposed by the Executive Secretary. It is the first biennium in which the Paris Agreement will be fully operational. Actions and decisions taken in 2024 and 2025 will determine whether the world has a chance to reach the goals and objectives of the Paris Agreement. To make sufficient progress by 2030 in accordance with science, the UNFCCC process must deliver significant outcomes in the 2024–2025 biennium. In 2024, the secretariat must be resourced to support Parties in responding to the outcomes of the first global stocktake. In the same year, a transformation of the finance agenda and an agreement on a new collective quantified goal on finance to support enhanced climate action are due. In parallel, the secretariat will be required to engage in correcting the collective course of action by enhancing the accountability of Parties and non-Party stakeholders. In 2025, when global emissions are supposed to peak, the secretariat will proactively support Parties in meeting their commitment to ratchet up ambition in the next round of nationally determined contributions.

Consequently, the proposed core programme budget, which carefully considers both the mandates given to the secretariat and the constraints in funding, is estimated at EUR 88.4 million (EUR 82.7 million, exclusive of 7 per cent for future inflation) for the biennium 2024–2025, which includes an increase of 41.9 per cent compared to 2022–2023 (EUR 62.3) to facilitate the delivery of essential (category 1) and key long-term activities (category 2), in support of  party driven mandates across programmatic and support activities. Despite this increase, the proposed core programme budget would still entail a high dependence on unpredictable supplementary funding EUR 155.4 million (EUR 145.2 million, exclusive of 7 per cent for future inflation) as it would only cover 67.4 per cent of the required resources for essential and recurring or long-term activities.  The actual requirements of the secretariat to undertake all category 1 and category 2 activities amounts to EUR 131.2 million EUR (122.6 million, exclusive of 7 per cent for future inflation).

As mandated, a zero nominal growth scenario that maintains the total core budget at the approved 2022–2023 level of EUR 62.3 million is also presented. This scenario absorbs realized statutory and other cost increases at the expense of staff and non-staff resources, resulting in a de facto 19 per cent reduction in the core budget and a prohibitive  dependence on supplementary funding, jeopardizing the sustainability of the UNFCCC secretariat and limiting support to critical recurring and long-term activities.

For all core budget scenario and the corresponding supplementary requirements, an adjustment of 7 per cent would need to be added for anticipated future statutory cost increases due to inflation.

In addition to the detailed information contained in this document on how the proposed programme budget was developed and its different components, the two addenda to this document provide further details on the work programme of the secretariat and the corresponding resource requirements, and the budget of the international transaction log. Additional supporting data and information on the 2024–2025 programme budget are available on the UNFCCC website at https://unfccc.int/about-us/budget.