Climate Change Adaptation

Written by

Zoe Johnson

Published on

October 26, 2022

In November 2022, Egypt will host delegates from around the world at the 27th United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP27). With the momentum from last year's COP26 slowed due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and an impending global financial crisis, COP27 represents a crucial moment to reengage the global community on the climate crisis. Climate change adaptation will be high on the agenda.

Despite broad recognition of the existential threat posed by climate change, the global community has so far been unsuccessful at adequately mitigating its progression. Intensifying climate change has led to ever-worsening damage to ecosystems, livelihoods, and global health security with the world's most vulnerable among the hardest hit. The global community has an important role to play in supporting these communities as they are forced to adapt to the dangerous realities of our changing climate.

Current funding for climate change adaptation remains insufficient, both in quantity and quality, as outlined in another recent Donor Tracker publication. Official Development Assistance (ODA) makes up only a small component of overall funding for climate change adaptation but, as argued in the Donor Tracker Toolkit from 2021, there are compelling arguments for why donors should be doing more. At COP27, global leaders urgently need to follow up on discussions they had at COP26 around increasing their funding for climate change adaptation and meeting their funding and policy commitments in this area.

To inform advocates’ work as they engage with donors around increasing concessional funding and policy commitments for climate change adaptation in the lead-up to COP27 and beyond, these ‘profile cards’ give overviews of eight important donors' major climate change adaptation commitments and priorities in 2022. For each donor, they outline thematic and/or regional priorities for climate change adaptation (including some examples or evidence of these priorities), recent commitments made toward climate change adaptation, and in some cases, what more might be expected at COP27. This is not an exhaustive list and further commitments are likely in the weeks between publication and events of COP27. For even more up-to-date information on donors’ climate financing delivered right to your inbox, sign up to receive the Donor Tracker’s Weekly Digest.