The Paris Agreement has raised the political profile of climate resilience. There is now a global goal for climate change adaptation and it is recognized that adaptation represents a challenge with local, national and international dimensions.
The 2016 Adaptation Finance Gap Report explores the costs of meeting adaptation needs and assesses the funding that is available for meeting those needs. It suggests that although international public funding for adaptation has increased in recent years, the previous assessments of the costs of adaptation have involved significant underestimates. This leaves us with a gap – the adaptation finance gap – which we need to fill if we are to meet the ambitions of the Paris Agreement.
The Report considers the options for bridging the finance gap. One of the strong messages emerging from the report is that mitigation is the best first option. Because adaptation is a function of a missed mark for mitigation, it is important that there remains an emphasis on emission reduction. Nevertheless, even if emissions can be cut effectively, a very large adaptation burden will remain and the communities least equipped to bear this burden will face the greatest impacts.