Climate change is a defining challenge of the 21st century, and it is both compounding existing threats to sustainable development as well as creating new obstacles (OECD, 2019[1]). Sustainable development and climate change are therefore inseparable. The latest assessment report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that “human-induced climate change is already affecting many weather and climate extremes in every region across the globe” (IPCC, 2021[2]). Heatwaves, heavy precipitation, droughts, tropical cyclones, sea-level rise and ocean warming and acidification are all phenomena that can undermine countries’ ability to achieve the objectives of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Assessments by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) have also shown the significant alteration of nature across the globe by multiple human drivers, leading to a rapid decline in the majority of indicators of ecosystems and biodiversity health (IPBES, 2019[3]). All these phenomena are altering the ecological systems that underpin economic activity and human societies, including their well-being, safety and development (Hoegh-Guldberg, Jacob and Taylor, 2018[4]). Developing countries, especially those already affected by extreme poverty, fragility, inequality and other types of vulnerability, are the most exposed to the impacts of climate change (Hallegatte et al., 2015[5]). Ultimately, this is undermining countries’ ability to achieve sustainable development.