Letters | COP26: Climate adaptation vital in race to net zero but where’s the funding?
- For a start, half of all global climate finance should be earmarked for climate adaptation in the crucial ‘race to resilience’
The “race to zero” and “race to resilience” campaigns are, of course, interconnected because adverse climate events impede our efforts to decarbonise. For instance, it is pointless to build a house with high energy efficiency that will be washed away during storm surges or major flooding.
Thus, the world surely needs to build strong adaptation capacity to ensure that our efforts to reach net zero remain resilient against climate uncertainties.
Second, public funding is far from sufficient. According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), total climate finance mobilised by developed countries for developing countries, where the need is greatest, was US$79.6 billion in 2019. Of this, adaptation finance was only US$20.1 billion.
Delegates at COP26 should, as a first step, allocate half of all global climate finance towards adaptation. The UN Environment Programme expects the annual adaptation costs in developing countries, currently estimated to be US$70 billion, to rise to US$140-300 billion in 2030 and to US$280-500 billion in 2050.