The United Nations Environment Programme on Wednesday said financing to help communities adapt to climate change falls far short of needs, although global warming is set to exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Developing countries will require roughly $305 billion annually by 2035 to build resilience and reduce risks, according to the 2026 Adaptation Gap Report. Even if international public adaptation finance triples, only a maximum of 29% of needs will be covered, the agency said.
| Item | Figure |
|---|---|
| Developing-country needs by 2035 | roughly $305 billion annually |
| Public adaptation finance in 2024 | $28.2 to $31.7 billion |
| Increase from the previous year | just a billion dollars |
| Projected funding if finance triples | $85 billion to $120 billion annually |
| Share of needs if finance triples | 20 to 29 per cent |
| Glasgow doubling goal by 2025 | $40 billion |
| Flows between developing countries in 2019 | $3.8 billion |
| Flows between developing countries in 2024 | $9.6 billion |
The report said global efforts to help developing countries adapt remain underfunded. Institutional barriers are constraining implementation, it said, while climate-related losses and damage continue to mount.
International public adaptation finance flows reached $28.2 billion to $31.7 billion in 2024, just a billion dollars more than the previous year, according to the report. Growth is flattening, UNEP said. The $305 billion estimate excludes the private sector’s own needs, and the report said the figure could double.
The call to triple annual support was agreed at last year’s climate conference in Brazil. It is part of an outcome text known as the Global Mutirão, which UNEP described as a Portuguese word based on an indigenous expression for a collective task. Even if that goal is achieved, projected funding of $85 billion to $120 billion annually would cover only 20% to 29% of estimated needs after inflation, the report said.
Inger Andersen, the UNEP executive director, said the world is not ready to adapt to present conditions or to warming beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius. At the COP31 conference in Türkiye and beyond, nations must intensify efforts to triple adaptation finance by 2035, she said. Andersen said they will need to go even higher to save lives, avoid losses and damages and protect economies.
The report was released ahead of COP31, which opens next week in Antalya, Türkiye. It 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, according to the report. Flows between developing countries rose from $3.8 billion in 2019 to $9.6 billion in 2024. Finance alone is not enough, UNEP said, 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.
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