Ahead of COP29, UNEP warns of major shortfall in climate adaptation funds for developing nations | India News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: Even though international public finance flows to help developing countries adapt to climate change are rising, there remains a significant gap of $187-359 billion per year between what is needed and what is being delivered, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said on Thursday.
In its annual Adaptation Gap Report, released four days ahead of the beginning of the UN climate conference (COP29), the UNEP noted that though fund flows to developing countries increased from $22 billion in 2021 to $28 billion in 2022, there is still an urgent need to significantly scale them up in this decade to address rising impacts of climate change.
The increase in 2022 compared to 2021 was, incidentally, 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 about $19 billion in 2019 by 2025. However, even achieving the Glasgow Climate Pact goal would only reduce the gap, which is estimated at $187-359 billion per year, by approximately 5%,” said the report.
The finance gap is expected to be flagged at the 29th session of COP29 during Nov 11-22 when negotiators of several countries, including India, will brainstorm the quantum of new climate finance post-2025.
“Nations can step up adaptation by adopting an ambitious New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) for climate finance set at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, and by including stronger adaptation components in their next round of climate pledges, or nationally determined contributions, due early next year ahead of COP 30 in Belém, Brazil,” said the report.
Last month, the UNEP in its annual ‘Emission Gap Report’ had flagged that the global average temperature rise is approaching 1.5 degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels (1850-1900), and the latest predictions put the world on course for a catastrophic rise of 2.6-3.1 degree Celsius this century unless there are immediate and major cuts to greenhouse gas emissions.