UN Report Warns Slow Climate Adaptation Funding Endangers Millions, Threatens Global Economies

UN Report Warns Slow Climate Adaptation Funding Endangers Millions, Threatens Global Economies

By Gloria Sarauniya Usman

ABUJA, NIGERIA October, 2025 -

A new United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report has warned that inadequate funding for climate adaptation in developing countries is putting millions of lives and entire economies at risk, as climate impacts intensify worldwide. The Adaptation Gap Report 2025: Running on Empty, released ahead of COP30 in Belém, Brazil, reveals that adaptation finance needs could reach over US$310 billion annually by 2035, twelve times higher than current funding levels.

According to the report, international public adaptation finance to developing countries fell to US$26 billion in 2023, down from US$28 billion the previous year, leaving a staggering funding shortfall of up to US$339 billion annually. This trajectory, UNEP warns, makes it impossible to meet the Glasgow Climate Pact goal of doubling adaptation finance to US$40 billion by 2025.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres described the situation as “a race against time,” stressing that adaptation must be seen not as a cost but a lifeline. “Climate impacts are accelerating. Yet adaptation finance is not keeping pace, leaving the world’s most vulnerable exposed to rising seas, deadly storms, and searing heat,” he said, urging world leaders to scale up funding commitments.

UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen echoed the concern, noting that climate disasters are already undermining economies through floods, heatwaves, and desertification. She called for a global push to boost adaptation finance without adding to the debt burdens of vulnerable nations. “If we do not invest in adaptation now, we will face escalating costs every year,” she warned.

The report also shows that while 172 countries have national adaptation plans or policies, many remain outdated or poorly funded. UNEP emphasized that without urgent, scaled-up investment from both public and private sectors, the adaptation finance gap could cripple developing nations’ ability to respond to worsening climate shocks and undermine global development goals.