Context: Recently, a study on global climate change adaptation finance was released by Green Climate Fund (GFC).
Key highlights of the Study

• Countries with the highest vulnerability to climate change have missed out on finance for adaptation through the Green Climate Fund (GFC).
• As per GFC, there should be 50% investment in resources to mitigation and 50% to adaptation in grant equivalent.
• This makes 154 countries eligible for funding, of which 84 received $2.5 billion GCF adaptation funding between 2015 and 2019.
• 16 of the 37 countries most vulnerable to climate change did not receive GCF funding.
• Most of them are from the Africa region.

Challenges in accessing climate funds

• Countries compete for funding by submitting proposals in adherence to certain guidelines and criteria.
• But many of the vulnerable countries suffer from “poor governance, weak institutions and a lack of financial and human capacities in their administrations”.  
• Countries like Eritrea, Somalia or Yemen with weaker capacity have not been able to access funding.
• A combination of high vulnerability, poor governance and often violent conflict are major barriers.
• Complex and competitive processes entrap vulnerable countries and deepens their conditions of poverty and poor development.

Findings from other studies

• The annual adaptation costs in developing countries to reach $140 to 300 billion per year by 2030, and $280-500 billion by 2050.
• Only a fifth (20.5%) of all climate financing went to least developed countries (LDCs) in 2017-18, and 3% to small island developing states (SIDS).

About Green Climate Fund (GCF)

• GCF was established by 194 countries of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in 2010.
• It allocates its resources to low-emission and climate-resilient projects and programmes in developing countries.
• Headquarters: Republic of Korea.
• Aim: To support a paradigm shift in the global response to climate change.

Functions

• Transformational planning and programming: by promoting integrated strategies, and policymaking to maximize the co-benefits between mitigation, adaptation and sustainable development.
• Catalyzing climate innovation: by investing in new technologies, business models, and practices to establish a proof of concept.
• De-risking investment to mobilize finance at scale: by using scarce public resources to improve the private finance for adaptation, nature-based solutions, least developed countries (LDCs) and small island developing states (SIDS).
• Mainstreaming climate risks and opportunities into investment decision-making to align finance with sustainable development: by promoting methodologies, standards and practices that foster new norms and values.