Two years ago, the Global Commission on Adaptation (GCA) was set up under the chairmanship of Ban Ki-moon, former Secretary General of the United Nations, and with a number of eminent individuals as Commissioners, including Dr Muhammad Musa from BRAC. The Commission was supposed to study and promote different aspects of adaptation to climate change and it was supported by the
Global Efforts to Adapt to the Impacts of Climate Are Lagging as Much as Efforts to Slow Emissions
A new UN report highlights how an adaptation gap hurts the most vulnerable countries and urges increased financing and cost-effective, nature-based preparations.
January 17, 2021
People stand on a green roof in Saxony, Germany. Credit: Sebastian Kahnert/dpa-Zentralbild/picture alliance via Getty Images
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Along with promising to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to slow global warming, under the Paris climate agreement world leaders also agreed to prepare for its unavoidable and mounting impacts: the displacement of people and the destruction of communities and croplands by sea level rise, intensifying storms, drought, wildfire and famines.
2020 was, in addition to COVID-19, the year of intensifying climate impacts. Floods, droughts and storms affected over 50 million people, while wildfires devastated forests and communities.
Half of the world's climate change financing should go to helping poorer nations adapt to the effects of global warming, such as droughts, rising seas and floods, the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) said on Thursday.
Devastating floods put Nigeria s food security at risk
The cost of climate adaptation
About three-quarters of the world s countries have national plans to adapt to climate change, according to the report, but most lack the regulations, incentives and funding to make them work.
More than a decade ago, rich countries most responsible for climate change pledged to mobilize $100 billion a year by 2020 in climate finance for poorer countries. UNEP says it is impossible to answer whether that goal has been met, while an OECD study published in November found that between 2013 and 2018, the target sum had not once been achieved. Even in 2018, which recorded the highest level of contributions, rich countries were still $20 billion short.