This report describes the progress in adaptation planning and implementation which has undertaken a major adaptation finance update and focuses on loss and damage. This year saw the hottest summer on record globally by a large margin, unprecedented flooding in China, extreme heat and wildfires in Canada and the US, and the continuation of a multi-year drought in East Africa. Climate impacts are rising and are increasingly translating into limits to adaptation. We must urgently ramp up adaptation efforts alongside rapid cuts to greenhouse gas emissions.
The adaptation gap report 2023 shows why adaptation is slowing on all fronts when it should be accelerating to catch up with climate impacts. The findings show:
- The progress in adaptation planning is plateauing while five out of six countries now have at least one national adaptation planning instrument progress to reach full global coverage which is slowing and requires greater support. On the other hand, over half of countries have two or more national level instruments and their quality is improving in terms of adequacy and effectiveness.
- While projects are getting bigger the number of adaptation actions supported through the four international climate funds has stagnated for the past decade.
- The report also found that gender and social inclusion is poorly addressed and funded in adaptation actions despite showing better results.
- The adaptation gap report 2023 carried out a major adaptation finance update based on a comprehensive assessment of the literature and new analysis. The adaptation finance gap is now estimated to be in the range of $ 194 to $ 366 billion per year or 10 to 18 times as great as international public finance flows. The example studies indicate a good value for money that every billion invested in adaptation against coastal flooding leads to 14 billion in reduced economic damages and $ 16 billion invested in agricultural adaptation every year can prevent around 78 million people from starvation or chronic hunger because of climate change impact, however finding innovative ways to enhance finance for adaptation is essential to narrow the gap.
This report identifies ways to increase adaptation finance:
- Scaling up international public finance domestic expenditure.
- Private sector finance remains central to enhancing adaptation action for additional potential sources.
- Remittance from migrants to their home countries.
- GDP increasing finance tailored to small and medium sized enterprises.
- Financial architecture as proposed by the Bridgetown initiative.
- To establish a fund and funding arrangement for loss and damage.
Innovative funding sources must be found to reach the necessary scale in conclusion despite clear signs of rising climate impacts. Worldwide adaptation is slowing when it should be accelerating as the consequence by first, the adaptation finance gap is widening and is much greater than previously estimated. Second, progress in adaptation planning and implementation in plateauing rather than showing the urgently needed acceleration and third, without strong investment in mitigation and adaptation action worldwide; looses and damages will rise steeply in the coming decades particularly for the most vulnerable. This will constrain the next generation from shaping a livable future.
Future COP 28 must be the moment the world commits fully to insulating low-income countries and disadvantaged groups such as women and indigenous peoples from climate impacts.
This report is compiled by Henry Neufeldt as the editor. It provides science-based assessments of global progress under the UNFCCC-international climate change discussion. The report convened 54 authors of which 45% are in the developing world and over half are female. This report was overseen by an international steering committee, and it has benefited from two rounds of external expert reviews.
At this launch Mrs. Andersen also took the chance to specifically highlight the contribution of Saleemul Huq, the visionary climate scientist, who tragically passed away just last week, we all know that Saleem was instrumental in pushing the issues of adaptation and loss and damage higher up the climate negotiation agenda. Saleem and others like him have warned us for years that climate disruption will be with us for decades and that we must get ready.
Saleemul Huq, the director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development, was instrumental in getting rich countries to agree at COP27 to pay for the “loss and damage” their high emissions inflict on poor countries. “Saleemul Huq pushed, cajoled, strategized for 30 years for rich, industrialized countries to acknowledge climate loss and damage,” Somini Sengupta, The New York Times global climate reporter, tweeted.
Full details of the report: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0qRlCLVZ2k
