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The UN Climate Change Conference COP29 has come to an end, while the climate crisis is destroying the livelihoods of millions of people. While delegates from the Global South criticise the inadequate climate financing, Swiss Environment Minister Albert Rösti shirks Switzerland's responsibility, citing budget restrictions and the mobilisation of private funds. This is an affront, writes Andreas Missbach.

With the purchase of new cookstoves, Ghana is expected to save more than 3 million tonnes of carbon emissions, thanks mainly to women – as a substitute for emission mitigation in Switzerland. Alliance Sud criticises the project's glaring lack of transparency and highlights controversial details that project owners attempted to hide from public view.

Development cooperation is repeatedly confronted with false statements and exaggerated expectations. A field report by Maxime Zufferey, Programme Associate at UNDP North Macedonia, shows what development cooperation can achieve and what it can contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

Without the polluter-pays principle, international climate policy cannot be funded – without tax justice, it is not feasible. A mini-world tour with an unequal but perhaps soon symbiotic duo.

The Federal Council wants to allocate to the Swiss private sector 500 million earmarked for reconstruction in Ukraine. This certainly does not serve the interests of Ukraine's economy and enterprises.

While billions in Afghan currency reserves are being managed in Geneva, civilians in Afghanistan are suffering from the indescribably precarious economic situation in the country. Shah Mehrabi, Co-chair of the Board of the Afghan Fund, is now calling for targeted disbursements.

Globally, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is an effective and welcome cooperation partner, says its Administrator Achim Steiner. He is concerned over dwindling financial support from countries like Switzerland. Interview by Laura Ebneter, Marco Fähndrich and Andreas Missbach

Next week ushers in another round of negotiations on a Framework Tax Convention at the UN headquarters in New York. Recently, the Swiss Cantons of Basel City and Zug, noted for their low corporate tax rates, again provided new material illustrating why this is an absolute necessity.

To align themselves with the Paris Agreement, banks have established and extolled the virtues of voluntary climate alliances. A recent European Central Bank study shows them to be ineffective.