World is ‘underprepared and underfinanced’ to meet climate challenges: UN report warns

New Delhi: The UN “Adaptation Gap Report 2023” warned that the progress on climate adaptation is slowing on all fronts and said the finance gap for adaptation efforts atleast 50 percent bigger than though.

Releasing “Adaptation Gap Report 2023” It said the world is underprepared, under invested and lacking the necessary planning, leaving us all exposed and warned that instead of speeding up, progress on adapting to climate change is stalling.

UNEP’s 2023 Adaptation Gap Report outlined what’s urgently needed in three key areas: finance, planning, and implementation.

The slowdown extends to finance, planning and implementation, says UNEP, with massive implications for loss and damage, particularly for the most vulnerable.

Released ahead of the COP28 climate talks taking place in Dubai, United Arab Emirates finds that the adaptation finance needs of developing countries are 10-18 times as big as international public finance flows, over 50 per cent higher than the previous range estimate.

The current adaptation finance gap is now estimated to be US$194-366 billion per year. vulnerable.

“In 2023, climate change yet again became more disruptive and deadly: temperature records toppled, while storms, floods, heatwaves and wildfires caused devastation,” said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP.

“These intensifying impacts tell us that the world must urgently cut greenhouse gas emissions and increase adaptation efforts to protect vulnerable populations. Neither is happening” she added.

Commenting on the report’s findings, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the report shows the gap in adaptation funding is the highest ever. The world must take action to close the adaptation gap and deliver climate justice.

“The updated adaptation costs for developing countries are estimated at $215 billion to $387 billion annually this decade, reflecting higher estimates than previous studies which are bound to increase significantly by 2050” UNEP said.

The agency said despite pledges made at COP26 in Glasgow to double adaptation finance support to around $40 billion per year by 2025, public multilateral and bilateral adaptation finance flows to developing countries declined by 15 per cent to around $21 billion in 2021.

“Concurrently, the adaptation finance gap is now estimated to be $194-366 billion per year” it said.

This report also identified seven ways to increase financing, including through domestic expenditure and international and private sector finance.

Additional avenues include remittances, increasing and tailoring finance to Small and Medium Enterprises and a reform of the global financial architecture.

The new Loss and Damage fund will also need to move towards more innovative financing mechanisms to reach the necessary scale of investment.