COP28: UN summit makes little progress on providing funds for adapting to climate crisis

COP28

Even as negotiations stalled over major differences over fossil fuels at the closing day of the UN climate summit in Dubai, the question of bankrolling developing nations to adapt to the climate emergency made little or no progress, negotiators and campaigners said.

Leaders at the 28th Conference of Parties (COP28) last week had acknowledged that there were significant gaps in funding for adapting to climate change, particularly for the most vulnerable countries. Finance for adaptation should be in the range of $194 billion to $366 billion per year, the UN had said in a report last month. Despite that, funding slumped 15 percent in 2021 from the previous year to $24.6 billion, recent evidence showed.

COP28

The countries most vulnerable to climate change said the global community must do more to help inure themselves against rising temperatures and extreme weather, something that was expected to make substantial progress at COP28. “Adaptation is a matter of life and death for Africa,” Zambia’s environment minister Collins Nzovu said in Dubai at a media briefing. A strong agreement on adaptation was the “most important outcome” for Africa at COP28, Nzovu said, speaking on behalf of African countries.

Adaptation is being neglected although it is important to prevent and minimise loss and damage due to extreme weather events, several negotiators from developing and poor nations said.

Many of them pushed for an agreement at COP28 that would offer targets for adaptation funding through a framework called the Global Goal on Adaptation set under the 2015 Paris treaty. A draft text of that document released on Sunday disappointed advocates for stronger action on adaptation.

The text, which is yet to be finalised, lacks clear targets and ambition, and is virtually silent on sourcing funds and channelising it to those countries that need it the most, officials said.

Negotiators have found it difficult to even define adaptation, which could mean a wide range of activities from protecting mangroves to lessen the impact of cyclones to improving weather forecasting and building climate-resilient infrastructure.

India on its part has advocated for adaptation finance at every climate summit and Dubai is no exception. “Our stand on this is clear. Emerging nations and less developed countries must be provided with funds so that they cape cope with the adverse impacts of climate change,” an Indian negotiator said. “Unfortunately, there seems to be very little progress made on this front.”

India’s stance is backed by data. Lower-income countries are not receiving even a tenth of what is required, according to the 2023 Adaptation Gap Report released by the UN. Two years ago, the global community agreed to double support for adaptation by 2025 but that promise is yet to be honoured.

“The draft text is extremely weak on the urgent scaling up of adaptation finance,” said Harjeet Singh, head of global political strategy at Climate Action Network International, a collective of nonprofits.