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with hurricane melissa Making its way through the Caribbean this week and leaving devastation in its path, the world has been reminded of how extreme weather is wreaking havoc in developing countries in the era of the climate crisis.
But even as the impacts of climate change become clear to everyone – whether in storm, Floods, Forest fireOr dry – The money available to developing countries to adapt to climate change is actually shrinking, according to a new UN report.
According to the 2025 edition of the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) ‘Adaptation Gap’ report, foreign aid available to developing countries for climate adaptation is set to decline from $28bn (£21bn) in 2022 to $26bn in 2023.
The authors warned that future adaptation finance needs will be approximately 12 to 14 times greater than currently available – UNEP estimates that developing countries will need $310–365 billion per year in adaptation finance by 2035.
Although data for 2024 and 2025 are not available, prospects for improving the gap in the short term look bleak, given how countries involved We And UK are cutting their foreign aid budget – and US President Donald Trump has announced his intention Withdraw US from all climate grants,
“Climate impacts are accelerating. Yet adaptation finance is not keeping pace, leaving the world’s most vulnerable people facing rising seas, deadly storms and scorching heat,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in response to the report’s findings.
“Adaptation is not a cost – it is a lifeline. By closing the adaptation gap we protect lives, deliver climate justice, and build a safer, more sustainable world. Let us not waste another moment.”
‘Climate adaptation’ is a far-reaching category in climate policy circles that includes everything from planting mangrove forests to protect coasts, to distributing seeds for drought-resistant crops, to building flood defenses.
The main focus is on how to generate more funds for adaptation from public and private sources COP30 climate summitWhich is to be hosted by the United Nations in Brazil next month.
Experts warn that with solar and wind power now cheaper than fossil fuel alternatives in most markets, climate mitigation – or reducing greenhouse emissions – is far easier to achieve than climate adaptation, which has long been far more dependent on aid money.
The UN said this week that the Adaptation Gap report follows the disappointing news that only 64 countries have submitted new plans for carbon cuts over the next decade, despite all countries being required to do so ahead of next month’s COP30 summit.
The combined impact of these plans – which cover only 30 per cent of global emissions – is far less than the emissions reductions needed to limit global warming to 1.5C, which is the limit that scientists consider ‘safe’.
Overall, the plans would mean global emissions of CO2 would fall by about 10 percent by 2035.
Last year, 1.5C limit It was violated for a whole year For the first time.
This article was produced as part of The Independent Rethinking global aid Project