This Week in Global Development

Episode: Leaders Push for Climate Adaptation Funding in the Face of Escalating Risks
Date: November 16, 2024

Overview:

In this special "Climate Plus" episode recorded onsite at COP 29 in Baku, hosts from Devex bring exclusive interviews and analysis on the global policy struggle to secure adequate funding for climate adaptation. Key leaders and advocates—including Kulthum Omari Motsumi (Africa Adaptation Initiative), Patrick Verkoyen (Global Center on Adaptation), and Tangaloa Cooper (South Pacific Regional Environment Program)—share on-the-ground perspectives on why adaptation remains underfunded, the urgency of reforming climate finance, and the distinct priorities of vulnerable regions, especially Africa and Pacific Island nations.

Main Theme:
While catastrophic climate impacts accelerate, adaptation finance remains insufficient compared to mitigation. Leaders debate why, discuss the consequences, and call for immediate action to improve and scale up support for communities most at risk.

Key Segments, Insights & Quotes

1. The Complex Landscape of Adaptation Funding

Interview: Kulthum Omari Motsumi, Special Advisor, Africa Adaptation Initiative
Timestamps: [02:41]–[12:26]

• Fragmentation of Funds:
  Multiple specialized funds (e.g., GCF, Adaptation Fund, Loss and Damage Fund) create confusion and competition for limited resources.

  "We have lots of different bodies popping up all the time ... Is that making it harder to get money into adaptation? Is it pulling away from that and going instead to loss and damage?" — Jesse Chase Lubitz, [01:44]

• Slow Processes Leave Vulnerable Populations Exposed:

  "The accreditation process for us African countries to even be able to access funds from the GCF takes years ... By then people are dead." — Kulthum Omari Motsumi, [04:33]

• Distinct Needs for Loss & Damage vs. Adaptation:
  Loss and damage funding must be rapid for acute disasters, while adaptation needs are broader and more systemic.

What Adaptation Really Means

• Beyond Traditional Sectors:
  Adaptation involves rethinking all areas of development—water, health, food, even cultural heritage—to integrate climate risk.

  "We need to do that differently. We need to adjust because climate change is here ... That adjustment of doing things so you're able to cater or integrate climate into the way you do planning is, in my view, adaptation." — Kulthum Omari Motsumi, [05:55]

• Health as an Adaptation Issue:
  Rising mortality from heatstroke and disease is now part of the adaptation discussion, not just infrastructure.

Risks of Maladaptation

• Inadvertent Harm:
  Large projects (e.g., land reclamation) must undergo multi-dimensional impact assessments to avoid unintended social or environmental harm.

  "I know there is the word maladaptation ... We need to think about these. What is the impact of some of these adaptation actions, even in the long term?" — Kulthum Omari Motsumi, [09:52]

2. Bridging the Adaptation Finance Gap

Interview: Patrick Verkoyen, CEO, Global Center on Adaptation
Timestamps: [13:13]–[24:33]

• Adaptation is Chronically Underfunded:

  "Three years ago ... the international community agreed ... to double adaptation finance from $20 billion a year to $40 billion a year. And where are we today? We're far off that doubling." — Patrick Verkoyen, [15:58]

• Reasons for the Gap:
  • 90–95% of climate finance goes to mitigation because it is easier to measure; adaptation's impacts are "less defined."
  • ROI for adaptation is less direct for business, so governments must lead.

  "Adaptation at the end of the day is about development ... but through a human-centered lens." — Patrick Verkoyen, [16:59]

• People's Adaptation Plans:
  Effective solutions start with communities identifying what resilience means for them—then connecting those priorities to major finance institutions.

  "[In Bangladesh,] we sit with local communities and ask ... What are your needs? ... They know exactly what the climatic impact [is] because you're living it." — Patrick Verkoyen, [18:34]

• The Need for Speed and Scale:

  "We are running out of time. The climate impact is spinning out of control ... We're sitting in this race car which basically doesn't have any brakes, we forgot to put our seat belts on and we don't have the guardrails in place." — Patrick Verkoyen, [21:11]

Geopolitical Concerns & US Leadership

• With shifting US politics (i.e., a potential Trump administration), there is fear of backsliding on commitments.

  "The big elephant in the room here in Baku is the Trump administration, right? ... What will be the implication of a potential pullout of the US from the Paris Accord?" — Patrick Verkoyen, [22:44]

• Reframing the Conversation:
  To protect progress, climate adaptation must be discussed as a matter of resilience, jobs, and economic security—not just environmental or moral imperatives.

3. Adaptation at the Front Line: The Pacific Island Perspective

Interview: Tangaloa Cooper, Director, Climate Change Resilience Program, SPREP
Timestamps: [24:33]–[34:24]

• An Existential Reality:
  Pacific nations are losing land, species, and culture now—not in a distant future.

  "We are on the front lines. I don't think the Global North realizes what the front line looks like, what the impacts look like." — Tangaloa Cooper, [25:14]

• The Scale of Required Funding:

  "We really shouldn't be talking about 100 billion anymore. We should be talking about trillions of dollars in support ... The world mobilized and came up with trillions for COVID-19 and climate change is not urgent enough? That baffles me." — Tangaloa Cooper, [27:18]

• The Window for Adaptation is Closing:
  When funding lags, critical chances to protect food systems, species, and livelihoods are lost—sometimes permanently.

  "For some ... the adaptation window has already closed. For some species that we have lost due to climate change, we have lost the opportunity to allow those species to adapt because we have missed funding windows." — Tangaloa Cooper, [29:05]

• Access Barriers:
  Complex, bureaucratic application processes (e.g., for GCF funds) block small island states from securing adaptation finance, even as needs become more urgent.

  "The irony is they were set up for developing countries, but the processes are so bureaucratic ... Most of the smaller countries ... don't have spare capacity to be dedicated to developing projects." — Tangaloa Cooper, [32:23]

• Actionable National Plans Risk Going Nowhere Without Funding:

  "What we don't want ... is for those [national adaptation] plans ... to have gone through two to three years of developing ... and then sit on a shelf because there's no money and the cupboard is bare." — Tangaloa Cooper, [31:18]

Notable Quotes

• Kulthum Omari Motsumi:

  "You have to now adjust how you distribute your water or how you manage your water at the national level ... that adjustment ... is in my view adaptation." [05:55]

• Patrick Verkoyen:

  "It is about development but through a human-centered lens ... It’s complex and super simple. It’s smart development and hence resilient development." [16:59]
  "We're sitting in this race car which basically doesn't have any brakes, ... Is that a smart way to run our economies? Probably not." [21:11]

• Tangaloa Cooper:

  "We really shouldn’t be talking about 100 billion anymore. We should be talking about trillions of dollars in support." [27:18]
  "For some ... the adaptation window has already closed. For some species that we have lost due to climate change, we have lost the opportunity to allow those species to adapt because we have missed funding windows." [29:05]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [02:41] Kulthum Omari Motsumi on fragmented funding and urgent needs for Africa
• [05:55] Defining adaptation and its cross-sectoral impact
• [09:52] Risks of maladaptation – the need for holistic decision-making
• [13:49] Patrick Verkoyen on why adaptation finance lags and economic framing
• [16:59] Challenges in measuring adaptation ROI & example from Bangladesh
• [21:11] Verkoyen’s "race car" analogy and accelerating climate impacts
• [22:44] US political risks and reframing adaptation in economic terms
• [25:14] Tangaloa Cooper on Pacific adaptation realities
• [27:18] The demand for trillions, not billions, for effective adaptation
• [29:05] Closed adaptation windows for Pacific species and communities
• [32:23] Barriers to finance access for small island states

Conclusion

This episode provides sobering testimony that climate adaptation remains the "poor cousin" in global climate finance—and that, for many vulnerable nations, the cost of delay is measured in lost lives, livelihoods, and ecosystems. As COP 29 negotiations intensify, leaders are calling not just for more money, but for faster, easier, and more equitable access to funds. Without urgent action, the adaptation window may close for the world’s most at-risk communities.

Call to Action:
Adaptation must take center stage in global priorities—with streamlined funding processes and massive increases in resources, else the opportunity to protect the most vulnerable will be irrevocably lost.