According to the 2023 Adaptation Gap Report, climate adaptation finance from public multilateral and bilateral sources, such as the World Bank, declined by 15 percent in 2021, reaching approximately $21 billion.Despite promises made at the 26th Conference of Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Glasgow to double adaptation finance support to around $40 billion per year by 2025, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) reveals a concerning dip in funding. UNEP report underscores that domestic budgets have become the primary source of funding for adaptation in many developing countries. These nations allocate between 0.2 percent to over 5 percent of their government budgets to adaptation efforts.
Adaptation Finance Gaps Persist
- Authors of the report note that neither domestic nor private funding sources have been able to bridge the adaptation finance gaps, particularly in low-income countries, including Least Developing Countries and Small Island Developing Nations.
National-Level Adaptation Planning on the Rise
- Encouragingly, the report finds that 85 percent of countries now have at least one national-level adaptation planning instrument, such as a policy, strategy, or plan, in place to address the challenges of climate change.
A Growing Global Finance Gap
- The Adaptation Gap Report estimates that the current global adaptation finance gap, representing the difference between needs and actual financial flows, ranges from $194 billion to $366 billion annually.