The 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) has stressed the need to boost climate adaptation finance, calling for a significant increase in financial resources to support countries in building their resilience to climate change.
The conference’s final declaration highlighted the need for public and grant-based resources, as well as the mobilization of a variety of funding sources, while recognizing the importance of environmental and social safeguards.
The declaration also emphasized the need to enhance the technical and institutional capacities of national governments and local actors to effectively mobilize, absorb, allocate, and use climate-related finance.
It called for:
• Strengthening access to all relevant financial resources, including by enhancing predictability, flexibility, and spending capacity, and working to reduce transaction costs, including by streamlining and simplifying application, approval, procurement, monitoring, and evaluation procedures.
• Giving priority to local ownership, impact, and results wherever possible, including by directing funding at the local level to respond to local needs and priorities, and working with affected communities and local and non-governmental government partners.
• Taking advantage of financial and technical support from the private sector and adopting dedicated financial tools to mobilize new sources of finance to support national and local responses.
• Continuing to monitor and track climate finance commitments and disbursements to countries affected by fragile or conflict situations, or facing acute humanitarian needs, to help identify gaps.
The declaration also called for:
• Investing in the design, testing, implementation, and scaling up of climate adaptation programs that are led by the most vulnerable and hard-to-reach populations and communities, including through:
o Preparedness and prevention, early warning, and early action.
o Disaster risk financing mechanisms.
o Ecosystem restoration, protection, and sustainable use.
o Sustainable agriculture.
o Climate-smart infrastructure.
o Resilient food, water, and energy systems.
o Comprehensive social protection systems.
• Contributing to building the evidence base on the effective implementation of climate action in countries or communities affected by fragility or conflict, drawing on the expertise and knowledge generated by humanitarian, peace, disaster risk management, and development actors, as well as from the contributions of researchers and academics, and building on community and indigenous knowledge.
• Empowering greater adaptation capacity in program implementation to improve spending rates, enable proactive action, and enable rapid and effective responses by a broad range of implementation partners.
• Strengthening the development of detailed, integrated, and gender- and vulnerability-sensitive maps at the cross-border, national, subnational, and community levels, including through monitoring and forecasting, as appropriate, to identify shocks and long-term trends that affect people and local communities.
• Empowering the leadership and empowerment of affected groups, including civil society, women, indigenous peoples, youth, persons with disabilities, refugees, displaced persons, and their host communities, as well as other affected groups, to participate actively in policy-making, program design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation, with the support of education and training sectors and ministries to enhance ownership, impact, and sustainability of climate action.
• Strengthening coordination, cooperation, and partnerships by improving the integration of expertise and mandates in the areas of climate, development, humanitarian affairs, disaster risk management, and peace actors to enhance the efficiency, sustainability, and effectiveness of short- and long-term investments, including by providing early and timely support, with the goal of achieving cumulative increases in adaptation, resilience, and recovery capacity of people and communities.
• Strengthening operational partnerships and synergies between governments, international and regional organizations, institutions, financial mechanisms, civil society, local communities, the private sector, and other actors to tailor climate adaptation action to the context and needs, and deliver coordinated, inclusive, and sustainable solutions for greater impact.
• Strengthening the exchange of information between countries, regions, institutions, and sectors, and the sharing of data and evidence, including early warning and climate risk analysis, and enhancing accuracy, reliability, and accessibility of data.
The conference participants also reaffirmed that the increasing and expected impacts of climate change pose a serious threat to biodiversity and livelihoods that depend on highly integrated ecosystems.
“In the face of continued loss of nature and its degradation, which increases climate vulnerability, and contributes to the emission of large amounts of greenhouse gases, we recognize that efforts that promote sustainable land management, drought resilience, and ocean health provide comprehensive benefits to work on climate change, biodiversity loss, and sustainable development, increasing resilience and securing sustainable livelihoods,” the participants said.
