Adaptation Gap Report 2024

Context:

Recently, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) released the Adaptation Gap Report 2024: Come hell and high water. 

Relevance:

GS III: Environment and Ecology

Dimensions of the Article:

1. Adaptation and Adaptation gap:
2. What’s new in this year’s report?
3. Key Findings of the Adaptation Gap Report 2024

Adaptation and Adaptation gap:

Adaptation: The process of adjustment to actual or expected climate and its effects. In human systems, adaptation seeks to moderate or avoid harm or exploit beneficial opportunities. In some natural systems, human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate and its effects (IPCC 2021 ).

Adaptation gap: The difference between actually implemented adaptation and a societally set goal, determined largely by preferences related to tolerated climate change impacts and reflecting resource limitations and competing priorities (UNEP 20142).

What’s new in this year’s report?

• The report finds that progress in adaptation financing is not fast enough to close the enormous gap between needs and flows, which contributes to a continued lag in adaptation planning and implementation efforts. 
• International public adaptation finance flows to developing countries increased from US$22 billion in 2021 to US$28 billion in 2022: the largest absolute and relative year-on-year increase since the Paris Agreement.
• This reflects progress towards the Glasgow Climate Pact, which urged developed nations to at least double adaptation finance to developing countries from US$19 billion (2019 levels) by 2025.
• However, even achieving the Glasgow Climate Pact goal would only reduce the adaptation finance gap, which is estimated at US$187-359 billion per year, by about 5 per cent. 
• The report calls for nations to step up by adopting a strong new collective quantified goal for climate finance and including stronger adaptation components in their next round of climate pledges, or nationally determined contributions, due in early 2025. 
• Given the scale of the challenge, bridging the adaptation finance gap will also require innovative approaches to mobilize additional financial resources. 
• Strengthening enabling factors is crucial to unlock innovative adaptation finance. An investment in strategic and transformational adaptation that is harder to finance will also be needed.
• Adaptation financing needs to shift from reactive, incremental, project-based financing to more anticipatory, strategic and transformational adaptation. 
• In addition to finance, there is a need to strengthen capacity building and technology transfer to improve the effectiveness of adaptation actions.
• The report provides recommendations to improve efforts, which are often uncoordinated, expensive and short term. 

Key Findings of the Adaptation Gap Report 2024

Widening Adaptation Finance Gap:

• There is a significant disparity between the financing needed for adaptation and the actual funds available, with the gap widening further.
• In 2022, only USD 28 billion was provided for adaptation, which meets just 5% of the needs outlined under the Glasgow Climate Pact.

Funding Requirements:

• The Glasgow Climate Pact sets a goal to reduce methane emissions by at least 30% below 2020 levels by 2030.
• The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) estimates that developing countries require USD 387 billion annually by 2030 for adequate adaptation.

Private Sector Funding Potential:

• Approximately one-third of the adaptation finance needs are in sectors traditionally supported by private investment, highlighting substantial opportunities for private sector engagement.

Emissions and Temperature Projections:

• The Emissions Gap Report 2024 projects that global temperatures could rise by 2.6°C to 3.1°C above pre-industrial levels by the end of this century.

Impact on Developing Countries:

• Developing countries, which contribute minimally to global greenhouse gas emissions, disproportionately suffer from climate-induced weather events.
• Recent severe floods in countries like Nepal, Nigeria, and Chad highlight their financial and infrastructural vulnerabilities.

National Adaptation Plans (NAPs):

• While 171 countries have developed at least one adaptation policy, 26 countries lack such a policy, with 10 explicitly uninterested in formulating one, indicating sluggish progress in adaptation planning.
• UAE Framework for Global Climate Resilience (UAE-FGCR):
• Introduced at UNFCCC COP28, this framework sets dimensional and thematic targets for adaptation across various sectors like agriculture, water, and health.
• Despite its significance as the first international declaration focused primarily on climate adaptation, implementation remains slow.

Shift in Adaptation Strategy:

• UNEP advocates for a transition from reactive to strategic adaptation approaches, particularly emphasizing underfunded areas such as ecosystem preservation and cultural heritage.

Transformational Adaptation:

• This concept, which was a contentious topic during COP28, involves substantial structural or functional changes rather than mere adjustments to existing practices, aiming to comprehensively address escalating climate risks.

-Source: Down To Earth