Rich-country aid for climate adaptation covers only a tenth of what is needed, UNEP says

Summary written by the Panorama newsroom from the sources listed below. Facts are attributed to the original publications.

Developed countries are providing developing nations with only about a tenth of the resources they need to adapt to climate change, according to a report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) released on Wednesday (Nov. 4), Folha de S.Paulo reported, citing dispatches from the AFP and Reuters news agencies.

According to the Adaptation Gap Report 2026, the need stands at US$305 billion a year, while financing from rich countries grew by just US$1 billion, reaching US$28.2 billion in 2024. That is below the pledge those nations made in 2021 to reach about US$40 billion a year by 2025.

The document comes on the eve of COP31, the UN climate conference scheduled for Nov. 9–20 in Turkey. According to the report, not even the goal agreed at COP30 in Belém, to triple adaptation finance and reach US$120 billion a year by 2035, would be enough: that amount equals about a third of what is needed, and developing countries' demand is expected to reach US$420 billion a year over the next nine years.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres summed up the situation by saying that for every dollar needed for adaptation, developing countries receive "only 10 cents." UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen said the world is not prepared even for current climate conditions, let alone for overshooting the 1.5°C warming limit.

Adaptation measures cited include building dikes against sea-level rise, diversifying crops to make them more drought-resistant and reinforcing housing. The report also noted growth in other sources of funding, such as multilateral development banks and flows between developing countries, which rose from US$3.8 billion in 2019 to US$9.6 billion in 2024.