UN report flags big gap in climate finance, India to raise the issue at COP27

NEW DELHI: Developing countries will need as much as $340 billion a year by 2030 for taking multiple adaptation measures to minimise the impact of climate change, but the international finance flows from developed nations for this purpose currently stands at less than one-tenth of that amount, said the UN Environment Programme in its 'Adaptation Gap' report released on Thursday.
"Estimated annual adaptation needs are $160-340 billion by 2030 and $315-565 billion by 2050,” said the UNEP report while flagging that the international adaptation finance flows, from developed to developing countries, however, reached only $29 billion in 2020.
Raising alarm on climate finance just three days ahead of the beginning of the UN climate conference (COP27) at Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt, the report noted how such support is too little and too slow to meet the adaptation needs of the poor and vulnerable countries.
Referring to such a huge gap in mobilising financial support for adaptation, UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres said the report made it clear that the “world is failing to protect people from the here-and-now impacts of the climate crisis”. He said, "Those on the front lines of the climate crisis are at the back of the line for support.”
India, being represented by environment minister Bhupender Yadav, is expected to flag this gap in a big way at COP27, beginning November 6. Besides finance, the climate conference will also see the first meaningful discussion on the issue of ‘loss and damage’ to work on a mechanism to provide assistance to developing countries for averting and minimising the impacts of climate change.
The ‘Adaptation Gap’ report finds that the combined adaptation and mitigation finance flows in 2020 fell at least $17 billion short of the $100 billion pledged by rich nations (historical polluters) to developing countries. “Significant acceleration is needed if a doubling of 2019 finance flows by 2025 is to be met, as urged by the Glasgow Climate Pact,” it said.
The developing countries with the help of adaptation finance are expected to take measures in different sectors, including agriculture, so that they could minimise the damage during climate change-induced extreme weather events.
The UNEP had last week released an ‘Emission Gap Report’ that found that the collective climate actions - Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) - of countries under the Paris Agreement could lead the global warming of 2.4-2.6 degree Celsius by the end of the century against the target of keeping the warming within 1.5 degree Celsius.
“Such trends mean that adaptation must take centre stage alongside mitigation in the global response to climate change,” said the UN body. It noted that since even ambitious investments in adaptation cannot fully prevent climate impacts, losses and damages must also be addressed.