Climate change has significant implications for developing countries. These include both increased severity of events such as floods and droughts and the potential need to implement low carbon growth strategies. Development co-operation could help to address these issues, but progress is likely to depend on addressing at least three challenges: (1) how to raise the necessary finance; (2) how to ensure fundraising efforts are well coordinated, complementary and coherent; and (3) how to ‘mainstream’ climate change into development co-operation. This policy brief considers how these problems are being handled within the context of European development co-operation and what the prospects are for building effective future climate change and development responses.