Adaptation Gap Report 2021

The sixth edition of the UNEP Adaptation Gap Report was released recently under the title ‘Adaptation Gap Report 2021: The Gathering Storm’.

AGR2021 provides an update on current actions and the emerging results of regional-level to national-level adaptation planning, finance and implementation worldwide.

Status and Progress of Global Adaptation Planning, Finance and Implementation

Planning

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change adaptation is becoming increasingly embedded in policy and planning across the world.
Indicators of adequacy and effectiveness of adaptation planning show positive trends compared to 2020.

Financing

New estimates of the costs of adaptation and the estimated financial needs for adaptation from developing countries indicate higher values than previously reported.
The evidence suggests that the adaptation finance gap is larger than indicated in 2020 and widening.
There is an urgent need to scale up and further increase public adaptation finance both for direct investment and for overcoming barriers to private-sector adaptation.

Implementation

Implementation of adaptation actions is continuing to grow slowly worldwide, despite uncertainty about future trajectories.
Implementation levels must be further scaled up to avoid falling behind with managing climate risks, particularly in developing countries.

Outlook on the Global Progress of Adaptation

Overall, progress in national-level adaptation planning, finance and implementation worldwide generally continues to grow and may be partially accelerating, but further ambition is needed.
Despite encouraging trends, the rate and scale of adaptation progress at the national level is not enough to keep up with growing needs and tracking progress remains a challenge.
Growing climate risks require a step change in adaptation ambition.