UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, in a message on Thursday, November 2, 2023, for the Adaptation Gap Report Launch, laments that, when it comes to climate change protection, there’s growing divide between need and action
Today’s Adaptation Gap Report shows a growing divide between need and action when it comes to protecting people from climate extremes.
Action to protect people and nature is more pressing than ever. Storms, fires, floods, drought and extreme temperatures are becoming more frequent and more ferocious, and they’re on course to get far worse. Lives and livelihoods are being lost and destroyed, with the vulnerable suffering the most.
Yet as needs rise, action is stalling. Today’s report shows the gap in adaptation funding is the highest ever. The world must take action to close the adaptation gap and deliver climate justice.
First, by massively increasing finance.
Developed countries must present a clear roadmap to double adaptation finance as promised – prioritising grants over loans – as a first step towards devoting half of all climate finance to adaptation. Multilateral Development Banks should also allocate at least fifty percent of climate finance to adaptation and change their business models to mobilise far more private finance to protect communities from climate extremes.
Second, adaptation plans must be transformed into investment plans, with new collaborative models that bring together governments, funders, development partners and civil society. The Adaptation Pipeline Accelerator partnerships, announced at the September United Nations Climate Ambition Summit, help show the way. By 2025, every vulnerable developing nation should have the support they need to develop and implement adaptation investment plans.
Third, every person on earth must be protected by an early warning system by 2027, by implementing the Action Plan launched at COP27 last year.
Fourth, we need bold action to respond to escalating loss and damage that results from climate extremes. All parties must operationalise the Loss and Damage Fund at COP28 this year. And we need new and early pledges to get the fund started on a strong footing.
Fossil fuel barons and their enablers have helped create this mess; they must support those suffering as a result. I call on governments to tax the windfall profits of the fossil fuel industry and devote some of those funds to countries suffering loss and damage from the climate crisis.
We are in an adaptation emergency. We must act like it. And take steps to close the adaptation gap, now.
