What’s new in this year’s report?
Released ahead of the COP28 climate talks taking place in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, the Adaptation Gap Report 2023: Underfinanced. Underprepared – Inadequate investment and planning on climate adaptation leaves world exposed finds that the adaptation finance needs of developing countries are 10-18 times as big as international public finance flows – over 50 per cent higher than the previous range estimate.
• After a major update over previous years, the report now finds that the funds required for adaptation in developing countries are higher – estimated to be in a plausible central range of US$215 billion to US$387 billion per year this decade.
• The modelled costs of adaptation in developing countries are estimated at US$215 billion per year this decade and are projected to rise significantly by 2050.
• The adaptation finance needed to implement domestic adaptation priorities, based on extrapolation of costed Nationally Determined Contributions and National Adaptation Plans to all developing countries, is estimated at US$387 billion per year.
• Despite these needs, public multilateral and bilateral adaptation finance flows to developing countries declined by 15 per cent to US$21 billion in 2021. This dip comes despite pledges made at COP26 in Glasgow to deliver around US$40 billion per year in adaptation finance support by 2025 and sets a worrying precedent.
• The report points to a study indicating that the 55 most climate-vulnerable economies alone have experienced losses and damages of more than US$500 billion in the last two decades. These costs will rise steeply in the coming decades, particularly in the absence of forceful mitigation and adaptation.
• Studies indicate that every billion invested in adaptation against coastal flooding leads to a US$14 billion reduction in economic damages.
• Meanwhile, US$16 billion per year invested in agriculture would prevent approximately 78 million people from starving or chronic hunger because of climate impacts.

However, neither the goal of doubling 2019 international finance flows to developing countries by 2025 nor a possible New Collective Quantified Goal for 2030 will significantly close the adaptation finance gap on their own and deliver such benefits.

This report identifies seven ways to increasing financing, including through domestic expenditure and international and private sector finance. Additional avenues include remittances, increasing and tailoring finance to Small and Medium Enterprises and a reform of the global financial architecture. The new Loss and Damage fund will also need to move towards more innovative financing mechanisms to reach the necessary scale of investment.

The Adaptation Gap Report 2023
UNEP's work on Climate action
Case study 1: Adaptation Finance: Mobilizing the Private Sector
Case study 2: Health-related loss and damage: Lessons from the Caribbean
Case study 3: Gender-responsive adaptation: Health insurance for women in Senegal
Case study 4: Mountains in silent thaw: The disappearing frozen heartbeat of our Earth
Case study 5: Navigating Climate Risks: San Pedro Sula’s Path to a Resilient Future
Case study 6: Transboundary adaptation: Local and regional benefits in the Middle East
Case study 7: Ecosystem-based adaptation: Rice Farming in Cambodia & Madagascar
Case study 8: Closing weather and climate data gaps: Enabling effective adaptation in Bhutan
Case study 9: Transformative Adaptation and Human Mobility: Planned Relocation in Fiji
Case study 10: The Pacific Heatdome: Heatwave Lessons from the United States
Case study 11: Cascading impacts and floods: Building adaptive capacity in Pakistan