Funding gap for climate adaptation hits new record
Climate adaptation funding is faltering as the dangers of rising temperatures accelerate, leaving cash-strapped nations increasingly exposed to higher seas and intensifying storms and drought.
Countries need between $215 billion and $387 billion a year this decade to prepare for the increasingly severe impacts of global warming, according to an annual U.N. report that tracks the most recent data for adaptation funding. That’s up to 18 times more in financing than is currently provided through international aid budgets.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate economics
Climate change is now a driver of the world’s economy. The impact is profound:
- Catastrophic weather events — hurricanes, floods, droughts, high temperatures — are more frequent and more extreme. The cost can be measured in both the initial damage caused and the longer-term impact on the economy.
- Vulnerable communities are increasing climate-related investments, hardening infrastructure and taking other protective measures.
- Investment in carbon capture and storage technologies is increasingly rapidly.
- Governments are making investments and crafting regulations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
On top of all of this is the cost of uncertainty. As the Fourth National Climate Assessment, released in 2018 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, says, “The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid.”