As climate impacts accelerate, finance gap for adaptation efforts at least 50% bigger than thought

The latest United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Adaptation Gap Report warns that the world is falling short in climate adaptation efforts, which should be accelerating in response to the growing impact of climate change. The report, released ahead of the COP28 climate talks in Dubai, states that adaptation finance needs in developing countries are 10-18 times greater than international public finance flows, leaving an adaptation finance gap of $194-366 billion per year. Despite a pledge made at COP26 to deliver around $40 billion per year in adaptation finance support by 2025, public multilateral and bilateral adaptation finance flows to developing countries declined by 15% to $21 billion in 2021. The report emphasizes the importance of ambitious adaptation efforts to enhance resilience, particularly for low-income countries and disadvantaged groups. It identifies seven ways to increase financing, including innovative mechanisms such as the new loss and damage fund, remittances, domestic expenditure, and reform of the global financial architecture.