Watch the press conference for the launch of the 2025 Adaptations Gap Report here.
Every nation is facing climate impacts, be they heatwaves, wildfires, floods or desertification. Very sadly, as we speak, Jamaica is dealing with the impacts of the strongest hurricane ever to hit the country as Hurricane Melissa continues its path towards Cuba with catastrophic flash flooding being reported.
As a result of these climate impacts, the poor and vulnerable are dying, suffering poor health and seeing their livelihoods damaged. Expensive infrastructure, from bridges to power grids, is under threat. The costs are large and growing, because strong action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and limit global temperature rise is lacking.
Developed nations should be investing in their own adaptation and climate resilience and, crucially, they should be financially supporting those developing countries least responsible for the climate crisis to do the same. Yet UNEPs Adaptation Gap Report 2025: Running on Empty shows they are not at the levels needed.
The report estimates adaptation finance needs of developing countries will be US$310 to US$365 billion per year by 2035. Meanwhile, international public adaptation finance from developed to developing countries fell from US$28 billion in 2022 to US$26 billion in 2023.
In line with global adaptation finance goals, the Adaptation Gap Report tracks finance from developed country contributions to developing countries. In contrast, the recent Joint Multilateral Development Bank Report shows an increase in adaptation finance as this report includes developing country contributions to Multilateral Development Banks, as well as non-flow instruments.
One thing that is clear is that unless trends turn around, the Glasgow Climate Pact goal to finance adaptation in developing countries to the tune of US$40 billion per year by 2025 will not be achieved, and the New Collective Quantified Goal for climate finance call to deliver at least US$300 billion for both mitigation and adaptation per year by 2035 will not be achieved. And we must remember that neither of these goals are even close to enough.
With the Baku to Belm Roadmap, which will be considered at COP30 in Belm, Brazil, we have the chance to enable the raising of US$1.3 trillion per year by 2035. For the roadmap to work, new finance providers and instruments must come on board, climate resilience must become an integral part of financial decision-making, and efforts must focus on concessional finance and grants to avoid increasing the debt burden of vulnerable nations. The private sector can also deliver up to US$50 billion a year, ten times its current contribution to adaptation.
Other innovative finance mechanisms like the Tropical Forest Forever Facility, that will be launched by the Brazil Government at COP30, will mobilize public, private and philanthropy resources to increase finance flows towards developing countries. More than 70 developing countries with tropical forests will be eligible to receive funds to protect and restore these forests, meaning this could be one of the largest multilateral funds ever created.
As nations prepare to meet at COP30, the Adaptation Gap Report delivers a clear message: we need a global push to fill up the adaptation finance tank from both public and private sources.
Even amid tight budgets and competing priorities, the smart choice is to invest in adaptation now to minimize loss of life, reduce damage to infrastructure and protect economies. It is pay now or pay far more later.
