Abstract
Least developed countries often lack the requisite capacity to implement climate change adaptation projects. The Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF) is a scheme where industrialized countries have (as of early 2016) disbursed $934.5 million in voluntary contributions, raised more than four times that amount in co-financing, and supported 213 adaptation projects across 51 least developed countries. But what sorts of challenges have arisen during implementation? Based on extensive field research in five least developed countries—Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, the Maldives, and Vanuatu—and original data collected from almost 150 research interviews, this article qualitatively explores both the benefits and challenges of LDCF projects in the Asia-Pacific. It finds that while LDCF projects do contribute to enhancing multiple types of infrastructural, institutional, and community-based adaptive capacity, they also suffer from uncertainty, a convoluted management structure, and an inability to fully respond to climate risks. Based on these findings, the study concludes that adaptation must be pursued as a multidimensional process; and that LDCF activities have tended to promote marginal rather than more radical or systematic transformations.
Highlights
Climate finance remains at the heart of any new agreement to equitably and efficiently address climate change
We look at the insights gleaned from adaptation finance channeled through the Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF) in five case study countries between 2008 and 2015
We lastly surmise that the LDCF brings to light two salient conclusions related to climate policy and adaptation practice in general: adaptation must be viewed a multidimensional process involving multiple actors, technologies, scales, and governance mechanisms; and insufficient funding and a convoluted management structure blunt the full efficacy of the LDCF
Summary
Climate finance remains at the heart of any new agreement to equitably and efficiently address climate change. This fundamental challenge can be divided into three core issues: how to achieve an optimal balance between climate change mitigation and adaptation funding, how adaption finance can be leveraged, and how the institutions allocating finance ought to be designed and operate (Fridahl and Linnér 2016; Fridahl et al 2014). Through a large set of interviews with stakeholders directly involved in disbursing or receiving adaptation finance, coupled with insights from a broader literature review, we provide a synthetic qualitative and narrative assessment of our five LDCF projects. We lastly surmise that the LDCF brings to light two salient conclusions related to climate policy and adaptation practice in general: adaptation must be viewed a multidimensional process involving multiple actors, technologies, scales, and governance mechanisms; and insufficient funding and a convoluted management structure blunt the full efficacy of the LDCF
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