The UN Environment Programme estimates that 155 developing countries will need $305 billion a year by 2035 to adapt to climate change, far more than the international funding recorded in 2024.
International finance from richer to poorer countries for adapting to climate change was at most $32 billion in 2024, the latest year with data, according to an assessment by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). The figure is below the 2022 peak and only $1 billion above the amount in 2023.
The funding pays for measures such as stronger infrastructure, early-warning systems, flood protection and irrigation that can withstand drought. UNEP estimates that 155 developing countries will need $305 billion annually by 2035 to adapt to climate impacts. That figure is a projection of need, not money already provided.
The assessment, covered by The Guardian, says support has stalled partly because many European governments are allocating more of their budgets to defense.
At COP26 in 2021, developed countries agreed to double the adaptation finance they provided by 2025, from a 2019 baseline of $18.8 billion. The commitment was broadly understood as a goal of about $40 billion and covered public grants and loans, including funding through multilateral development banks and funds.
UNEP says funding was well behind the pace needed to meet that goal, although it expects multilateral development banks to have made up some of the shortfall in 2025.
At COP30, countries agreed on a target to at least triple adaptation finance by 2035. UNEP estimates that fulfilling it would raise funding to $85–120 billion and cover only 20–29% of needs. The target does not specify a baseline year and sits within a broader finance framework that includes private finance mobilized by public spending and voluntary contributions from wealthier developing countries.
Least-developed countries received 16% less adaptation support in 2024 than in 2022. The UN estimates that those countries and small island states need $40–50 billion a year for adaptation, or about 3–4% of their gross domestic product, a measure of economic output. That is twice the relative economic burden estimated for upper-middle-income developing countries.
UNEP executive director Inger Andersen said delivering the funding commitments protects frontline communities, prevents forced displacement and safeguards food security. She said delays raise long-term costs and strain communities' ability to cope in the near term.
Climate justice groups want faster, larger funding flows and more grants or loans on favorable terms at COP31, scheduled for 9–20 November 2026, in Antalya, Turkey. They say high-interest loans are hard to repay for projects such as sea walls and heat shelters that generate no direct revenue. UNEP says the costs of debt and equity financing can more than double adaptation project budgets.
The court limited fireworks use on 7–8 November to 06:00–07:00 and 20:00–22:00 local time, as Delhi’s air quality index reached 377 on Wednesday morning.
2 min
The proposed bill would let the regulator order compensation, impose fines and ban operators that push households and businesses into overpriced contracts.
2 min
A strike-related power failure stopped dialysis for 25 patients at a hospital outside Khartoum, UN coordinator Denise Brown says. Fuel shortages have also stranded hundreds of aid trucks, preventing food, nutrition and shelter deliveries.
2 min
