Although global warming is set to exceed 1.5°C, financing to help communities adapt to climate change falls far short of needs, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said in a report published on Wednesday.
The 2026 Adaptation Gap Report finds that developing countries will require roughly $305 billion annually by 2035 to build resilience and reduce risks.
Yet even if international public adaptation finance triples only a maximum of 29 per cent of needs will be covered.
"The world is not ready to adapt to current climactic conditions, never mind what overshoot of 1.5°C will bring," warned Inger Andersen, the UNEP Executive Director.
Adaptation finance growth stalls
The report was released ahead of the COP31 conference, which opens next week in Antalya, Türkiye.
It reveals that:
- global efforts to help developing countries adapt to climate change remain underfunded
- institutional barriers are constraining implementation
- while climate-related losses and damage continue to mount
International public adaptation finance flows reached $28.2 to $31.7 billion in 2024, or just a billion dollars more than the previous year.
Growth is flattening; moreover, the $305 billion estimate excludes the private sector's own needs, meaning that this figure could double.
Intensify efforts
The call to triple annual support was agreed at last year's climate conference in Brazil and is part of a key outcome text known as the Global Mutirão - a Portuguese word based on an indigenous expression for "collective task".
Even if this goal is achieved, projected funding of $85 billion to $120 billion annually would cover only 20 to 29 per cent of estimated needs after inflation.
"At climate COP31 in Türkiye and beyond, nations must focus on intensifying efforts to achieve the COP30 Global Mutirão aspiration of tripling adaptation finance by 2035 - while understanding that they will need to go even higher to save lives, avoid losses and damages and protect economies," Ms. Andersen said.
The report stressed that countries could still meet the goal of doubling finance from 2019 levels to $40 billion by 2025 as outlined in the 2021 Glasgow Climate Pact, adopted at COP26 in Scotland.
Multilateral development banks likely increased their financing significantly last year and flows between developing countries have also increased, rising from $3.8 billion in 2019 to $9.6 billion in 2024.
However, finance alone is not enough, and the report underlined the need to strengthen institutions and accelerate implementation to protect vulnerable communities, build resilience and address growing climate-related losses and damage.
