The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) released the Adaptation Gap Report 2024: Come hell and high water released on November 7, 2024.
- The report has been released just days before the start of the 29th Conference of Parties (COP29) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on November 11, 2024.
- The report says that 2022 showed the greatest year-on-year absolute and relative increase in adaptation finance flows to developing countries which increased from $22 billion in 2021 to $28 billion in 2022.
- The actual adaptation financing needs for developing countries is a whopping $387 billion per year till 2030.
- This shows some progress towards achieving the Glasgow Climate Pact goal of doubling annual adaptation finance flowing from developed to developing countries from 2019 levels of $19 billion to $38 billion. But this is not even close to what is actually required.
- The adaptation gap is the difference between actually implemented adaptation and a goal set by society, determined largely by preferences related to climate change impacts, and reflecting resource limitations and competing priorities.
