Developing countries are receiving less than 10 per cent of the money they need to adapt to a world increasingly vulnerable to extreme weather - putting lives, livelihoods and entire economies at risk, the UN revealed on Wednesday.
That's the main message in this year's Adaptation Gap Report from the UN Environment Programme ( UNEP ).
By 2035, developing nations will need well over $310 billion per year in dedicated funding to adapt to a planet increasingly altered by polluting fossil-fuel emissions, the report states.
"Climate adaptation" refers to the ways countries respond to actual or expected climate change and its effects, to moderate the harm caused.
Examples include flood defences such as seawalls, improved drainage systems, or elevating roads and buildings. In 2023, vulnerable countries received around $26 billion.
'Adaptation is a lifeline'
UN Secretary-General António Guterres , who warned on Tuesday that humanity's failure to limit man-made global warming to 1.5ºC above pre-industrial levels will lead to "devastating consequences," said on Wednesday that the adaptation gap leaves the world's most vulnerable people exposed to rising seas, deadly storms, and searing heat.
"Adaptation is not a cost - it is a lifeline," declared the UN chief. "Closing the adaptation gap is how we protect lives, deliver climate justice, and build a safer, more sustainable world. Let us not waste another moment."
Although far more needs to be done, the report notes that visible progress is being made to close the gap.
For example, most countries have at least one national adaptation plan in place, and climate funding for new adaptation projects rose in 2024 (although the current financial landscape means future funding is in jeopardy).
Baku to Belém, to $1.3 trillion
The latest adaptation data will help negotiations focused on tackling the climate crisis at the annual UN Climate Conference.
This year's event, COP30, is being held next month in Belém, Brazil, where ramping up financing for developing nations will be high on the agenda.
At last year's UN Climate Conference in Baku, Azerbaijan (COP29), a new goal - the Baku to Belém Roadmap - was launched: $1.3 trillion for climate finance - from public and private sources - by 2035.
This is not just for adaptation, it also covers the transition to economies that don't rely on fossil fuels for energy.
The authors of the Adaptation Gap report agree that the roadmap could, if implemented, make a huge difference, but the devil is in the detail.
They argue that funding should come from grants rather than loans, which would make it even harder for vulnerable countries to invest in adaptation.
Speaking at the launch of the report on Wednesday, Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP, called for a global push to increase adaptation finance - from both public and private sources - without adding to the debt burdens of vulnerable nations.
Investment now, she said, will avoid the cost of adaptation escalating.
