As Climate Adaptation Finance Falls, $310 Billion Annual Gap Threatens Lives and Economies
Oru Leonard
The UNEP Adaptation Gap Report 2025 highlights the urgent need for increased climate adaptation finance for developing countries. Here are the key findings:
Developing countries need approximately $310-365 billion per year by 2035 for adaptation finance.
Current international public adaptation finance flows are only $26 billion, leaving a gap of $284-339 billion per year.
172 countries have at least one national adaptation policy, strategy, or plan in place. However, 36 countries have outdated instruments, and few countries report on actual outcomes and impacts.
The private sector’s potential investment in adaptation is estimated at $50 billion per year, but current flows are only around $5 billion per year.
As a call to action the international community must increase adaptation finance, contain the adaptation finance gap, and engage more finance actors in integrating climate resilience into financial decision-making.
Grants, concessional, and non-debt-creating instruments are essential to avoid increasing indebtedness in vulnerable countries.
On the way forward, the report’s findings will inform negotiations at COP30 in Belém, Brazil, emphasizing the need for a global push to increase adaptation finance and close the finance gap.
Follow-up questions:
1. What specific actions can be taken to increase private sector investment in climate adaptation?
2. How can the international community ensure that adaptation finance is allocated effectively and efficiently to support vulnerable countries?
3. What role can development banks play in addressing the adaptation finance gap, and how can their lending capacities be enhanced
?
