New Delhi: Developed countries need to drastically increase their funding to developing nations for adaptation measures to tackle climate change, as per the United Nations Environment Programme’s Adaptation Gap Report released on November 7.
This year’s UNEP Adaptation Gap Report titled ‘Come Hell and High Water’ estimates that the current adaptation finance gap is currently between US $ 187-359 billion per year. It also noted that international adaptation finance flows from developed countries to developing ones increased from US $ 22 billion in 2021 to US $ 28 billion in 2022, which per the report is “the largest absolute and relative year-on-year increase since the Paris Agreement”. However, this is still not enough, the Report highlighted. Even achieving the Glasgow Climate Pact goal of doubling adaptation finance to at least US $ 38 billion by 2025 would only cut the current adaptation finance gap by about 5%, the report noted.
“We need developed countries to double adaptation finance to at least $40 billion a year by 2025 – an important step to closing the finance gap. We need to unlock a new climate finance goal at COP29,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in a video message.
Developing countries are struggling with increasing debt burdens, and nations have to increase ambitions and adopt a strong New Collective Quantified Goal on climate finance at COP29, the report also said. The NCQG, which is part of the 2015 Paris Agreement, aims at setting a new financial target to support developing countries in their climate actions post-2025.
The UNEP report also highlighted that there was a huge opportunity for private sector investments; currently, only around one third of the adaptation finance gap is in areas typically financed by the private sector.
“In addition to finance, there is a need to strengthen capacity-building and technology transfer, and to enhance the effectiveness of adaptation actions,” the UNEP report noted. Among the report’s recommendations are that adaptation strategies be developed based on a holistic understanding of the needs of the country rather than from the perspective of pushing forward a particular technology.
Around 87% of the countries have at least one national adaptation planning instrument, and 50% have two or more. However, the National Adaptation Plans and Nationally Determined Contributions of nations have to be more aligned, the report found. The question of who is eventually paying for adaptation is not being adequately addressed in the current discussion on adaptation financing, the report noted; in most cases, it is the developing countries themselves that are paying for it, the report noted.
“Climate change is already devastating communities across the world, particularly the most poor and vulnerable. Raging storms are flattening homes, wildfires are wiping out forests, and land degradation and drought are degrading landscapes,” said Inger Andersen, executive director of UNEP, in a press release. “People, their livelihoods and the nature upon which they depend are in real danger from the consequences of climate change. Without action, this is a preview of what our future holds and why there simply is no excuse for the world not to get serious about adaptation, now.”
