Context: Recently, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has released the fifth edition of Adaptation Gap Report.

Key highlights

Step up climate change adaptation or face serious human and economic damage – UN report

• Almost three-quarters of nations have some adaptation plans in place, but financing and implementation fall far short of what is needed
• Annual adaptation costs in developing countries are estimated at USD 70 billion. This figure is expected to reach USD 140-300 billion in 2030 and USD 280-500 billion in 2050.
• Nature-based solutions, critical for adaptation, need to receive more attention

Status and progress of global adaptation planning, finance and implementation

• The climate adaptation is now widely embedded in policy and planning across the world, but levels of engagement and the quality of instruments are vastly different from country to country.
• The Paris Agreement underscores the importance of national-level adaptation planning processes by committing all countries to report on progress made.
• The analysis shows that most countries (72 per cent) have adopted at least one national-level adaptation planning instrument.
• Most developing countries have begun formulating a national adaptation plan (NAP), which is a key mechanism to strengthen the focus on adaptation.
• The biggest dedicated multilateral climate fund, the Green Climate Fund has allocated 40 per cent of its total portfolio to adaptation.

Planning, finance and implementation of nature-based solutions for adaptation

• The nature-based solutions (NbS) can be low cost options that are potentially effective in reducing climate risks, while simultaneously bringing important additional benefits for the economy, environment and livelihoods.
• At least 50 per cent of the National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans specifically emphasize the potential and importance of NbS in addressing the vulnerability of species and ecosystems to climate change.
• The investments by four major climate and development funds (the Global Environment Facility, the Green Climate Fund, the Adaptation Fund and the International Climate Initiative) suggests that support for green and hybrid adaptation solutions has risen considerably.

Outlook on the global progress of adaptation

• The climate adaptation is now fully part of climate policy action across the world with widespread adoption and continued development of national, subnational and sectoral adaptation planning instruments.
• The adaptation gaps urgently need to be narrowed as recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports warn of increasing climate risk levels.

About Adaptation Gap Report (AGR)

• UNEP produced the first AGR for the twentieth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 20) in Lima in 2014.
• It was launched in response to requests by UNFCCC Parties for an assessment on adaptation, complementary to the annual Emissions Gap Report.
• The first report proposed a definition of the adaptation gap as the difference between actually implemented adaptation and a societally set goal.
• It provided a preliminary framework for assessing adaptation gaps and proposed three dimensions: the funding gap, the technology gap and the knowledge gap.

United Nations Environment Programme

• The UNEP is a leading global voice on the environment established on 5th june 1972 and their headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya.
• It provides leadership and encourages partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations.
• It sets the global environmental agenda, promotes the sustainable development within the United Nations system, and serves as an authoritative advocate for global environment protection.
• Major Reports: Emission Gap Report, Global Environment Outlook, Frontiers, Invest into Healthy Planet.
• Major Campaigns: Beat Pollution, UN75, World Environment Day, Wild for Life.