Empowering Social Protection in Developing Economies: The Role of Climate Finance; Insights from COP28

Global challenges resulting from climate change, economic distress, and social confrontation are rising. In this scenario, Social Protection (SP) provides a mechanism to deal with all such issues. This research study aims to analyse the impact of SP on Conference of the Parties (COP28) Climate Financing (CF). The study is based on a panel of 32 countries that met the CF criteria for a period of 19 years. To empirically validate the impact, the Two Step System GMM method has been used. This approach deals with the endogeneity issue and provides robust analysis to account for autocorrelation and heteroscedasticity problems. The results show that CF has a significant impact on empowering SP. However, in the case of low-income countries, the impact is negative. This paper offers a novel analysis of the COP28 CF and SP framework. The study also highlights the broader policy relevance of COP28 financing frameworks. It suggests the potential to inform global climate finance, enhance cross-country allocation, and guide the integration of climate-related funding with social protection beyond developing economies.