- all for step-change in financing adaptation and resilience as breakthrough Guide for Adaptation and Resilience Finance (the Guide) offers clarity and transparency to accelerate investment.
- The Guide sets out - for the first time - eligible financeable activities and guidance on what constitutes adaptation and resilience investment, alongside a practical roadmap for financing and investment opportunities.
- Created by Standard Chartered, KPMG and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) - with support from 20+ leading financial institutions Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) and NGOs - the Guide responds to the urgent call to mobilise private finance for adaptation and resilience, issued at COP28.
KPMG, Standard Chartered and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) are today calling for a step-change in the mobilisation of finance for adaptation and resilience ahead of COP29, particularly in emerging markets. This comes as Standard Chartered, KPMG and UNDRR launch a breakthrough roadmap to galvanise and align sector-wide efforts to address the significant finance shortfall in adaptation and resilience.
The Guide for Adaptation and Resilience Finance, developed with support from more than twenty leading financial institutions, Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) and NGOs – including the African Development Bank and the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative – represents a practical tool for investors, commercial banks, and other financial institutions by:
- Setting out a common reference for adaptation and resilience alongside a list of financeable adaptation and resilience themes and activities, forming a classification framework
- Simplifying the decision-making process when financing adaptation and resilience through principles and guidance based on latest best practice definitions and frameworks
- Identifying priority investments and their co-benefits, including emissions reductions and nature protection and conservation, alongside adaptation and resilience benefits
The Guide maps over 100 investable activities across adaptation and resilience, including: climate-resilient crops, vertical farming, natural flood protection, water conservation and efficiency measures, public hospital infrastructure investment, renewable energy storage solutions, and mangrove conservation and replanting.
The latest UN analysis on global climate impacts underlines the need for urgent action, with 2023 marking the hottest year on record amid rising sea levels and the increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather. Economic losses from natural and climate-related disasters are estimated to cost more than USD 330 billion per year, and this figure is just the tip of the iceberg of the real uncounted costs on people’s lives.
Today, less than 10% of all climate finance is allocated to adaptation. The global adaptation financing gap is widening, and current levels of funding remain well below the estimated USD 212 billion per year needed through to 2030 in developing countries alone.
Research conducted by Standard Chartered, published in its Adaptation Economy Report, found that for every USD 1 spent on adaptation this decade, an economic benefit of USD 12 could be generated - highlighting the significant economic pay-off of early action towards adaptation and the potential gains for investors.