United Nations report summarising the current state of adaptation to climate change, comparing current needs with funding, planning and implementation of actions.
This edition of the Adaptation Gap Report examines the current state of adaptation planning and implementation at the global level. It also includes a more detailed chapter on financing than previous editions, as well as a focus on loss and damage, which is increasingly present on international negotiation agendas.
It presents measures to improve national and global adaptation efforts – including concrete case studies – and identifies ways to increase adaptation funding.
🔎 Key Takeaways
The report identifies the adaptation finance gap, i.e. the difference between current financial flows and adaptation needs. This figure currently stands at between 194 and 366 billion dollars per year. The financial needs for adaptation are 10 to 18 times greater than current international public financial flows for adaptation, or at least 50% greater than previous estimates.
International public climate finance flows to developing countries have decreased by 15% to US$21.3 billion in 2021, after increasing to US$25.2 billion between 2018 and 2020. To meet the commitments made at COP26 to double adaptation funding by 2025, financial flows must increase by 16% between 2022 and 2025. Even if this target is met, it will only reduce the adaptation funding gap by between 5% and 10% (see figure below).
Five out of every six countries party to UNFCCC have established at least one national adaptation plan, strategy or policy. Half of them have updated these instruments at least once. Of those that do not have an adaptation plan, half are in the process of developing one. However, the report notes an overall slowdown in the adoption of planning instruments.
The implementation of adaptation plans is stagnating in developing countries. Actions supported by the four main international climate funds have decreased in number while increasing in value due to the presence of larger projects. This could be due in part to exogenous events such as the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
While elements on loss and damage are increasingly present in NDCs and adaptation plans, the focus is mainly on economic losses, and a lack of conceptual clarity is hampering operational progress.
The report notes that whereas mitigation measures account for the lion’s share of funding, slow and insufficient progress in reducing emissions is already translating into soft and hard limits to adaptation – the points beyond which even adaptation options may not be feasible.
