Adaptation Finance: Setting the Ground for Post-Paris Action

Adaptation finance has been recognized as a pivotal element of the international response to climate change in light of the climate vulnerability of natural and human systems to climate-related risks in an increasingly warm world. At present, however, relevant data on adaptation financing are not systematically and consistently collected across investors, and there is not yet an internally agreed methodology for comprehensive and consistent measurement. The resulting information gap on adaptation finance flows is an impediment to accountability and the provision of quantitative-based evidence supporting adaptation policy and investment decision-making.This study sought to provide an updated picture on how much, how, where, and from whom finance is flowing toward climate-resilient actions with the overarching aim of providing a pre-Paris Agreement baseline against which measuring progress and on which building to further improve tracking systems. Drowning from a variety of primary and secondary sources, the study finds that in 2013/2014 public institutions invested US$25 billion, on average, for adaptation actions. The study highlights that this estimate remains uncertain and partial due to lack of harmonized accounting methods and data gaps, particularly on private investment. The study points to improvement in current tracking systems and highlights opportunities for scaling up adaptation finance given that more efforts would be needed to enable societies and economies to adapt to the impacts of climate change.