Adaptation Gap Report 2021

• 09 Nov 2021

The sixth edition of the UNEP Adaptation Gap Report was released recently under the title ‘Adaptation Gap Report 2021: The Gathering Storm’.

• AGR2021 provides an update on current actions and the emerging results of regional-level to national-level adaptation planning, finance and implementation worldwide.

Status and Progress of Global Adaptation Planning, Finance and Implementation

Planning

• Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change adaptation is becoming increasingly embedded in policy and planning across the world.
• Indicators of adequacy and effectiveness of adaptation planning show positive trends compared to 2020.

Financing

• New estimates of the costs of adaptation and the estimated financial needs for adaptation from developing countries indicate higher values than previously reported.
• The evidence suggests that the adaptation finance gap is larger than indicated in 2020 and widening.
• There is an urgent need to scale up and further increase public adaptation finance both for direct investment and for overcoming barriers to private-sector adaptation.

Implementation

• Implementation of adaptation actions is continuing to grow slowly worldwide, despite uncertainty about future trajectories.
• Implementation levels must be further scaled up to avoid falling behind with managing climate risks, particularly in developing countries.

Outlook on the Global Progress of Adaptation

• Overall, progress in national-level adaptation planning, finance and implementation worldwide generally continues to grow and may be partially accelerating, but further ambition is needed.
• Despite encouraging trends, the rate and scale of adaptation progress at the national level is not enough to keep up with growing needs and tracking progress remains a challenge.
• Growing climate risks require a step change in adaptation ambition.