Tanzania has challenged development partners and international lenders to turn climate finance pledges into actual funding, warning that delays are leaving the country exposed to rising economic losses from extreme weather and other climate-related shocks.
Finance Minister Khamis Mussa Omar said Tanzania needs $19.3 billion to implement measures under its second Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC 2.0), but faces a financing gap of about $12 billion.
He said the gap threatens the pace at which Tanzania can implement projects designed to protect agriculture, infrastructure and livelihoods from climate-related risks.
“Tanzania needs $19.3 billion in climate finance, while facing a gap of about $12 billion,” Mr Omar said on Monday when opening the 2026 Tanzania Climate Finance Roundtable in Dar es Salaam.
The meeting brought together government officials, development partners, financial institutions and private investors to discuss how Tanzania can mobilise more financing for climate-related investments.
Mr Omar said climate change could no longer be treated as a distant environmental problem, noting that its effects were already being felt through declining agricultural production and damage to infrastructure.
Tanzania contributes about 0.31 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, yet faces significant economic consequences from climate change, he said.
The minister said one of the biggest problems facing developing countries was not simply a shortage of climate finance globally, but the difficulty of accessing it at affordable cost and within a reasonable timeframe.
He cited inadequate climate funding, an imbalance between financing for adaptation and mitigation, reliance on loans rather than grants, lengthy procedures for accessing funds and high borrowing costs for climate projects in Africa.
For Tanzania, the financing challenge is particularly important because many of the projects needed to protect communities from climate impacts do not necessarily generate immediate commercial returns.
Mr Omar called for increased access to concessional loans and grants, simpler procedures for accessing climate funds and innovative financing mechanisms, including debt-for-nature swaps.
He also called for climate projects to be designed and led according to national priorities, while international support should take into account countries' wider economic conditions.
The government is also looking at ways of mobilising more domestic and private capital.
Mr Omar said Tanzania was exploring the possibility of issuing a sovereign green bond to raise funds for environmentally sustainable projects.
The move would build on experience in Tanzania's domestic market, where companies have already issued green bonds.
He said the government was also seeking to strengthen domestic financing capacity, with nearly three-quarters of the current national budget expected to be financed through domestic sources.
Tanzania's energy transition is another area where the government sees room for climate investment.
Mr Omar said renewable energy currently accounts for 68 per cent of the country's electricity system, which has an installed capacity of 4,121 megawatts.
But he stressed that the ultimate test of climate finance should be whether it produces tangible benefits for people facing the effects of climate change.
“For citizens directly affected by climate change, the success of this meeting should not be measured by the quality of speeches, but by the real difference made in their lives through identified projects, agreed partnerships and financing that arrives on time,” he said.
Finance Permanent Secretary Natu El-Maamry Mwamba said Tanzania now needed to move from identifying climate challenges to implementing practical solutions.
She said climate change was already affecting the economy and livelihoods, making the transition to a climate-resilient economy an important part of Tanzania's development agenda.
According to Dr Mwamba, the government is working to develop a stronger pipeline of bankable climate projects that can attract financing from public institutions, development partners and private investors.
“The goal is to create an environment that enables public resources, development finance and private capital to be used efficiently to finance projects addressing climate change,” she said.
World Bank Regional Director for the Planet practice Anna Wellenstein said Tanzania's climate finance gap required urgent action.
She said the country needed nearly $20 billion to implement its NDC commitments, with only about one-third of the required financing currently having identified sources.
Ms Wellenstein said Tanzania nevertheless had a strong policy foundation for attracting climate finance, citing the development visions for mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar, the National Adaptation Plan and the National Energy Compact.
She said reforms in climate governance, disaster-risk management and climate-risk analysis in the financial sector had strengthened the country's ability to respond to climate-related challenges.
But closing the financing gap would require Tanzania and its partners to focus on three areas—setting clear investment priorities, developing quality bankable projects and matching projects with the right financing instruments.
She said not every climate project should be financed in the same way, with decisions needing to consider whether a project can generate revenue as well as its wider public benefit.
The World Bank is supporting Tanzania through investments and policy reforms, including strengthening climate finance units in the finance ministries of mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar, developing sustainable finance taxonomies and improving carbon market systems.
For Tanzania, the challenge now is to ensure that climate finance moves beyond commitments and reaches projects capable of protecting farms, roads, water systems, energy infrastructure and livelihoods from increasingly costly climate shocks.