This is the main message of this year Adaptation Gap Report of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).
By 2035, developing countries will need more than $310 billion a year in dedicated funding to adapt to a planet increasingly changed by polluting fossil fuel emissions, the report says.
“Climate adaptation” refers to how countries respond to actual or expected climate change and its effects, in order to mitigate the damage caused.
Examples include flood defenses such as sea walls, improved drainage systems or elevated roads and buildings. In 2023, vulnerable countries received approximately $26 billion.
“Adaptation is a lifeline”
UN Secretary-General António Guterreswho warned on Tuesday that humanity’s failure to limit human-caused global warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels would lead to “devastating consequences”, said on Wednesday that the adaptation gap exposes the world’s most vulnerable people to rising seas, deadly storms and scorching heat.
“Adaptation is not a cost, it is a lifeline,” the UN chief said. “Closing the adaptation gap is how we protect lives, achieve climate justice and build a safer, more sustainable world. Let’s not waste another moment.”
Although much remains to be done, the report notes that visible progress is being made to close the gap.
For example, most countries have at least one national adaptation plan in place, and climate finance for new adaptation projects has increased in 2024 (although the current financial landscape means future financing is at risk).
Baku to Belém, at 1.3 trillion dollars
The latest data on adaptation will facilitate negotiations focused on tackling the climate crisis at the annual UN Climate Conference.
This year’s event, COP30, will be held next month in Belém, Brazil, where increasing funding for developing countries will be a priority.
At last year’s United Nations Climate Conference in Baku, Azerbaijan (COP29), a new goal – the Baku-Belém roadmap – was launched: $1.3 trillion for climate finance – from public and private sources – by 2035.
This is not just about adaptation, it also covers the transition to economies that do not rely on fossil fuels for energy.
The authors of the Adaptation Gap report agree that the roadmap could, if implemented, make a huge difference, but the devil is in the details.
They argue that funding should come from grants rather than loans, which would make it even more difficult for vulnerable countries to invest in adaptation.
Speaking Launching the report on Wednesday, Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP, called for a global effort to increase adaptation finance – from public and private sources – without increasing the debt burden on vulnerable nations.
Investing now, she said, will avoid rising adaptation costs.
Climate inaction causes millions of deaths every year.
Climate inaction costs “millions of lives” (WHO)
Highlighting the urgency of adapting to climate change, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced Wednesday that climate inaction costs millions of lives every year.
The results are contained in the last Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change Wednesday, which shows continued over-reliance on fossil fuels, coupled with a failure to adapt to an overheated world, is already having a devastating impact on human health in all countries, rich and poor.
The rate of heat-related deaths, for example, increased by 23 percent since the 1990s, at an average of 546,000 deaths per year. Droughts and heatwaves added 124 million people to the number of people facing moderate or severe food insecurity in 2023, and exposure to heat caused productivity losses equivalent to US$1.09 trillion.
Despite the human and economic costs, governments spent $956 billion on net fossil fuel subsidies in 2023, more than triple the annual amount pledged to support climate-vulnerable countries: fifteen countries spent more on fossil fuel subsidies than on their entire national health budget.
“We have the solutions at our fingertips”
“We already have solutions to avoid climate catastrophe,” said Dr Marina Romanello, executive director of the Lancet Countdown at University College London. “Communities and local governments around the world are proving that progress is possible. From growing clean energy to adapting cities, actions are happening that are delivering real health benefits – but we need to keep the momentum going.”
Dr Romanello described the rapid elimination of fossil fuels in favor of clean renewable energy and efficient energy use as the most powerful lever to slow climate change and reduce deaths, estimating that a transition to healthier, climate-friendly diets and more sustainable agricultural systems would massively reduce pollution, greenhouse gases and deforestation, potentially saving more than ten million lives a year.
Publicado anteriormente en Almouwatin.
