About the Report

• • The Adaptation Gap Report is an annual publication by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) that assesses the gap between the need for climate change adaptation and the current state of adaptation efforts worldwide.

• The cost of adaptation is the amount needed for planning, preparing for, facilitating and implementing measures to reduce harm or exploit beneficial opportunities arising from climate change.

• The report provides updated information and analysis to reflect the evolving landscape of climate change adaptation.

Why in News?

• • The United Nations Environment Programme has released its Adaptation Gap Report 2023.

• The UNEP is the leading environmental authority in the United Nations system. 

• It was founded as a result of the UN Conference on the Human Environment (also known as the Stockholm Conference) in 1972. 

Highlights of the Report

• The global adaptation gap (difference between needs and actual financial flows) — is growing even as climate change continues to wreak havoc.
• The report has estimated that the current global adaptation finance gap is $194-366 billion per year. For developing countries, the total cost of adaptation amounts to $215 billion per year. 
  • Adaptation measures such as river flood protection, infrastructure and coastal protection demand the highest adaptation costs in regions of East Asia and the Pacific as well as Latin America and the Caribbean.
  • The adaptation finance needs are 10-18 times as high as the current international public adaptation fund flows. 

• Climate adaptation finance flows from public multilateral (like the World Bank) and bilateral sources (from a developed to a developing nation) declined by 15 per cent to around $21 billion in 2021.

• This dip is despite pledges that were made at the 26th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Glasgow to double 2019 adaptation finance support to around $40 billion per year by 2025.

• Multilateral development banks, including the World Bank, are the largest providers of adaptation finance. However, their financial commitments decreased by 11 per cent in 2021 after seeing an increase from 2017 to 2020.
• The second biggest providers are bilateral sources, for example, from a developed country to a developing country. Financing through these sources also saw a decrease in 2021.