The estimated costs to fully prepare low-income nations for the worst effects of a rapidly heating planet are now 10 to 18 times greater than the amount of money that is currently flowing to these regions, according to the United Nations Environment Programme’s annual “adaptation gap” report. That’s a more than 50% larger gap than UNEP had estimated in its 2022 report.
The flow of adaptation finance declined by 15% to $21 billion in 2021 – the most recent year UNEP has data for – though its authors noted the Covid pandemic may have deflated climate finance spending that year. UNEP estimates the actual need is between $194 billion and $366 billion a year, and is projected to rise dramatically by 2050 as the planet warms.
The issue — as well as who should pay for the loss and damage created by the climate crisis — is expected to be a key sticking point in climate negotiations at the COP28 talks in Dubai this December.