The gap “continues to widen” between the funds allocated to reduce the exposure of developing countries to the impacts of global warming and the real, ever-increasing needs, the UN warned on Thursday.
Adaptation, ie measures to reduce the exposure and vulnerability of countries and populations to the effects of climate change, is an important point of the Paris agreement aimed at limiting global warming. It particularly concerns aid to developing countries, which are often the most exposed.
According to a new report by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), the annual needs for adaptation are now estimated between 160 and 340 billion US dollars by 2030 and between 315 and 565 billion by 2050 These sums have been revised upwards from a previous estimate published a year ago.
Climate risks are “increasing”, underlines the UNEP, recalling the current drought in the Horn of Africa or the floods in Asia. The authors hope for the expression of “a strong political will” in favor of adaptation during the COP27 which opens on November 6 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
“International financial flows for adaptation to climate change directed to developing countries are 5 to 10 times lower than the estimated needs, and the gap continues to widen”, deplores the United Nations.
Rich countries have pledged $100 billion in annual aid since 2009 — not just for adaptation but also for mitigation, that is, reducing emissions, which continues to capture the majority of funding. But about $17 billion is still missing from that total.
For the adaptation part alone, the flows reached 29 billion dollars in 2020, very far from the desirable sums, according to the reports of the donor countries, i.e. an increase of 4% compared to 2019.
“To turn the plans into concrete actions we need funding and this funding is not there”, regretted the director of UNEP Inger Andersen during an online conference. “There is a gaping chasm to be filled,” she says.
“Adaptation may not seem to be the priority at the moment, but it is nevertheless” and the subject will be “on the table for decades”, insists the manager.
To catch up on adaptation, last year’s COP26 in Glasgow called on developed countries to at least double the funds allocated to this cause by 2025. “Significant acceleration is needed” to achieve this goal, points out UNEP.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said it was “unacceptable” that “the most vulnerable people and communities are paying the price” for the lack of funding.
In an attempt to fill this gap, he announced the creation of a new tool intended to accelerate the financing of adaptation projects, to “unblock” this specific finance.
“The current model for providing adaptation support is broken,” commented a senior UN official.
This new “adaptation project accelerator” aims to make private and public finance work together “around the priorities identified by a country”, to transform these “priorities into an investment plan and a pipeline of projects likely to bring in money”, he added, adding that the experiment was underway with certain countries such as Rwanda.