UNEP's Adaptation Finance Gap
Report: Failure to cut emissions will dramatically increase the annual costs of
adaptation, which could be up to five times higher by 2050 than previously
thought.
ROTTERDAM, The Netherlands (PAMACC News) – The cost of adapting to climate change in developing
countries could rise to between $280 and $500 billion per year by 2050, a
figure that is four to five times greater than previous estimates, according to
a new United Nations Environment (UNEP) report.
Released as nations sign the landmark
Paris Agreement on climate change, the report assesses the difference between
the financial costs of adapting to climate change in developing countries and
the amount of money actually available to meet these costs – a difference known
as the “adaptation finance gap”.
The report, the second in UNEP’s
series of Adaptation Gap reports, finds that total bilateral and
multilateral funding for climate change adaptation in developing countries has
risen substantially in the five years leading up to 2014, reaching $22.5
billion. But the report warns that, despite this increase, there will be a
significant funding gap by 2050 unless new and additional finance for
adaptation is made available.
“It is vital that governments
understand the costs involved in adapting to climate change,” said Ibrahim
Thiaw, Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme.
“This report serves as a powerful
reminder that climate change will continue to have serious economic costs. The
adaptation finance gap is large, and likely to grow substantially over the
coming decades, unless significant progress is made to secure new, additional
and innovative financing for adaptation.”
Previous estimates place the cost of
adapting to climate change at between $70 to $100 billion annually for the
period 2010-2050, a figure based on a World Bank study from 2010. The Adaptation
Finance Gap Report, which is written by authors from 15 institutions and
reviewed by 31 experts, builds upon these earlier estimates by reviewing
national and sector studies.
As a result, the report finds that
the World Bank’s earlier figures are likely to be a significant underestimate.
The true cost of adapting to climate change in developing countries could range
between $140 and $300 billion per year in 2030, and between $280 and $500
billion per year in 2050, it says.
Adaptation costs are likely to
increase sharply over time even if the world succeeds in limiting a global rise
in temperatures to below two degrees Celsius by 2100, the report warns. For
higher scenarios of global warming, estimates of the adaptation costs in
developing countries are higher even in early years, the report states.
The United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has called on developed countries to provide
$100 billion annually by 2020 to help developing countries mitigate climate
change, and adapt to its impacts, such as drought, rising sea levels and
floods.
However, the UNEP report notes:
“There is no agreement as to the type of funding that shall be mobilised to
meet this goal. This hampers efforts to monitor progress toward meeting the
goal.” The report further highlights the need for the proper measurement,
tracking, and reporting system of adaptation investments, to help ensure that
finance is used efficiently and targeted where it is most needed.
The report states that, while
dedicated climate funds are breaking down the barriers to investing in
adaptation projects in developing countries, contributions to these funds are
low when compared to the contributions made to funds that mitigate climate
change.
The Green Climate Fund, which was
set up by the UNFCCC, with its stated goal of splitting funding equally between
mitigation and adaptation efforts, is expected to play a significant role in
efforts to fund adaptation, the report states.
“The adaptation finance gap is
large, and likely to grow substantially over the coming decades, unless
significant progress is made to secure new and additional finance for
adaptation,” the report concludes.
“To meet finance needs and avoid an
adaptation gap the total finance for adaptation in 2030 would have to be
approximately six to 13 times greater than international public finance today”.
Adaptation costs are already two to
three times higher than current international public funding for adaptation,
states the report, which was launched today at Adaptation Futures – the
biennial conference of the Global Programme of Research on Climate Change
Vulnerability, Impacts and Adaptation.
Closing this gap will be vital if
the world is to address future adaptation needs, especially those of developing
countries.
The Paris Agreement on climate
change, which 195 countries negotiated in December, includes several key
provisions designed to advance adaptation. Three are particularly momentous:
the adoption of a global goal on adaptation, the commitment to increase
developed country funding to developing countries and the requirement that all
parties draw up and regularly update adaptation plans and strategies.
In an unprecedented move, the Paris
Agreement also calls for a balance between adaptation and mitigation finance
and support in a bid to meet longstanding demand for adaptation finance from
developing countries.
For more information, please
contact:
Shereen Zorba, Head of News and
Media, +254 788 526000. Email: Shereen.Zorba@unep.org
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