Adaptation Finance Research Articles

How much bilateral and multilateral climate adaptation finance is targeting the health sector? A scoping review of official development assistance data between 2009-2019.

Climate change is adversely affecting human health. Rapid and wide-scale adaptation is urgently needed given the negative impact climate change has across the socio-environmental determinants of health. The mobilisation of climate finance is critical to accelerate adaptation towards a climate resilient health sector. However, a comprehensive understanding of how much bilateral and multilateral climate adaptation financing has been channelled to the health sector is currently missing. Here, we provide a baseline estimate of a decade's worth of international climate adaptation finance for the health sector. We systematically searched international financial reporting databases to analyse 1) the volumes, and geographic targeting, of adaptation finance for the health sector globally between 2009-2019 and 2) the focus of health adaptation projects based on a content analysis of publicly available project documentation. We found that health was largely a co-benefit, not the principal objective, within the projects. We estimate that USD 1,431 million (4.9%) of total multilateral and bilateral adaptation has been committed to health activities across the decade. However, this is likely an overestimate of the true figure. Most health adaptation projects were in Sub-Saharan Africa, with average project funding comparable to East Asia and the Pacific and the MENA region. Fragile and conflict affected countries received 25.7% of total health adaptation financing. The paucity of health indicators as part of project monitoring and evaluation criteria and the lack of emphasis on local adaptation were particularly significant. This study contributes to the wider evidence base on global health adaptation and climate financing by quantifying adaptation funds directed towards the health sector and revealing specific gaps in financing health adaptation. We anticipate these results will support researchers in developing actionable research on health and climate finance and decision-makers in mobilizing funds to low-resource settings with high health sector adaptation needs.

Unlocking the flow of finance for climate adaptation: estimates of ‘Fiscal Space’ in climate-vulnerable developing countries

ABSTRACT We study the availability of fiscal space in climate-vulnerable developing countries. These countries require urgent climate adaptation and transition investments. However, their governments describe being bypassed for international financial support due to ‘limited fiscal space.’ We suspect that many governments are not close to a point of long-term insolvency but are unable to maneuver fiscally because of what has been called a ‘financial death trap.’ We apply a measure of fiscal space based on an endogenous debt limit reflective of a country’s record of fiscal adjustment consistent with long-term solvency. We find that for many countries, the distance between the endogenous debt limit and forecast public debt ratios – i.e. fiscal space – is fairly ample. Our findings imply that climate-vulnerable countries should be afforded a second look by international financial institutions using a long-term lens, of which this measure of fiscal space is an example. By illuminating the difference between long-term insolvency and short-term liquidity crises, the endogenous debt limit measure could be part of a multi-pronged strategy to unlock greater flows of adaptation finance. It could lower the cost of capital or be useful in the efficient allocation of adaptation financing among countries given current shortfalls. Actions to obviate the financial death trap are also warranted. Climate ambitions will be derailed if otherwise solvent and able governments are unable to access finance for urgent climate adaptation investments.

Exploring the emergence of a tipping point for conservation with increased recognition of social considerations.

Despite a common understanding of the harmful impacts of Western conservation models that separate people from nature, widespread progress toward incorporating socioeconomic, political, cultural, and spiritual considerations in conservation practice is lacking. For some, the concept of nature-based solutions (NbS) is seen as an interdisciplinary and holistic pathway to better integrate human well-being in conservation. We examined how conservation practitioners in the United States view NbS and how social considerations are or are not incorporated in conservation adaptation projects. We interviewed 28 individuals working on 15 different such projects associated with the Wildlife Conservation Society's Climate Adaptation Fund. We completed 2 rounds of iterative coding in NVivo 12.6.1 to identify in the full text of all interview responses an a priori set of themes related to our research questions and emergent themes. Many respondents saw this moment as a tipping point for the field (one in which the perceived values of social considerations are increasing in conservation practice) (76%) and that social justice concerns and the need to overcome racist and colonial roots of Western conservation have risen to the forefront. Respondents also tentatively agreed that NbS in conservation could support social and ecological outcomes for conservation, but that it was far from guaranteed. Despite individual intention and awareness among practitioners to incorporate social considerations in conservation practice, structural barriers, including limited funding and inflexible grant structures, continue to constrain systemic change. Ultimately, systemic changes that address power and justice in policy and practice are required to leverage this moment to more fully address social considerations in conservation.

Multilateral Climate Finance Coordination: Politics and Depoliticization in Practice

Abstract The governance of public climate finance for mitigation and adaptation in developing countries is fragmented on both the international and national levels, with a high diversity of actors with overlapping mandates, preferences, and areas of expertise. In the absence of one unifying actor or institution, coordination among actors has emerged as a response to this fragmentation. In this article, we study the coordination efforts of the two most important multilateral climate funds, the Climate Investment Funds (CIF) and the Green Climate Fund (GCF), on the global level as well as within two recipient countries, Kenya and Zambia. The CIF and the GCF are anchored within the World Bank and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, respectively, and represent two diverging perspectives on climate finance. We find that on both levels, coordination was depoliticized by treating it as a technical exercise, rendering invisible the political divergences among actors. The implications of this depoliticization are that both funds coordinate mainly with actors with similar preferences, and consequently, coordination did not achieve its objectives. The article contributes to the literatures on coordination, climate finance, and environmental governance by showing how a response to the fragmentation of climate governance did not overcome political fault lines but rather reinforced them.

Time to pay the piper: Fossil fuel companies’ reparations for climate damages

Time to pay the piper: Fossil fuel companies’ reparations for climate damages

Inclusive and resilient shelter guide: accounting for the needs of informal settlements in Solomon Islands

PurposeThis paper aims to highlight the localised shelter solutions to fulfil adequate and disaster resilient housing needs of urban informal settlers of Honiara, the capital city of Solomon Islands, in a way that is sensitive to their unique challenges, values and aspirations, is gender- and disability-inclusive, and considers housing from the complete lifecycle of a disaster (pre-, during- and post-).Design/methodology/approachQualitative data was gathered through empirical research through five community workshops at five hotspot settlements, two stakeholder workshops and a stakeholder interview. Semi-structured questions as well as photographs of housing and settlement were used for data collection. With an emphasis on self-recovery, the identified shelter needs were then matched with the roles and responsibilities of the Government to support a process of “assisted” self-preparedness and recovery.FindingsThe output of the research was the Solomon Islands Shelter Guide. This paper draws from the Guide to present some of the findings. One of the key findings was an emphasis on shelter self-preparedness and self-recovery. However, in order for them to do that, they needed a combination of assistance – technical knowledge, materials and financial support – which is tailored to their settlement’s specific needs and based on hazard damage assessment. While the Guide provides one form of the assistance (i.e. technical), this paper is a call for action from the Solomon Islands Government and shelter responders to fulfil the rest of the community needs for shelter adequacy.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper contributes to existing scholarship on shelter after disasters by adding “assisted” in front of self-recovery, in line with the limited access to resources by the most vulnerable to recover, despite housing being” a human right and definition of adequate housing (UN-Habitat, 2015, 2021), which includes freedom of choice, entitlements and meeting minimum adequacy criteria.Practical implicationsThere are many implications of this research. Since the publication of the Shelter Guide, there is excitement among most humanitarian and development agencies, government authorities and the local communities in Honiara. The Guide forms the first step in contributing to identified needs and strengthening community capacities to self-build, self-recover or self-retrofit one’s house based on their own choice of materials, design, social and economic circumstance. However, it provides one of the three elements identified as needs by the communities, as i) technical guidance, and a kit-of parts for multi-hazard safe housing, ii) financial and economic assistance and iii) a political voice or being supported and heard by the government. The research team are working with the same five urban informal communities in 2022–2023 to develop and operationalise local disaster plans (in partnership with local non-government organisations), capacity-building activities and translation of the Shelter Guide into technical posters (for local builders) and graphic novel in local pidgin language, as part of the Climate Resilient Honiara project (funded by the United Nations framework convention on climate change (UNFCCC) Adaptation fund and administered by UN-Habitat). In the longer term it would be worth evaluating the practical implications of the Guide or to examine whether the proposed socio-technical and governance guidance will find roots in the local culture.Originality/valueWhile the Guide adhered to internationally agreed concepts of self-recovery, incremental shelter and core space, it contributes to existing scholarship on shelter after disasters by adding “assisted” in front of self-recovery, in line with housing as a human right and adequate housing (UN-Habitat, 2015, 2021), including freedom of choice, entitlements and meet minimum adequacy criteria, all of which require materials and financial assistance by the relevant in-country authorities.

Private finance for food system climate adaptation: opportunity or contradiction?

Private finance for food system climate adaptation: opportunity or contradiction?

Power Relations in Climate Finance Coordination: The North-South Divide in Strategy and Implementation of Adaptation Programs in Nepal, Mozambique, Bangladesh, and Zambia

Despite the Global South's minimal contribution to the causes of climate change, the region bears a disproportionate burden of its consequences. Acknowledging this predicament, the Global North has enhanced transitional efforts to green economies and further committed to mobilize climate finance in support of adaptation and mitigation measures in affected regions in the Global South. In recent years, effective coordination has become critical in ensuring that climate adaptation finance achieves the intended outcomes. However, the climate finance coordination debate has largely been centered at the global level with the Global North and donor organizations focusing mainly on transfer channels and paying limited attention to coordination mechanisms in recipient countries. In the Global South, the debate has mainly centered around domestic policy and institutional mechanisms with limited attention to the complex north-south, political and power interactions. Using the theory synthesis approach, this article examines the extent to which power relations between donor and recipient countries affect climate finance coordination from the global to subnational levels. The analysis is based on the World Bank-Led Pilot Program for Climate Resilience (PPCR) as implemented in Nepal, Mozambique, Bangladesh, and Zambia. This article stresses the need for stakeholders and actors to look beyond the technical understanding of climate finance coordination to acknowledge it for the complex, nonlinear, and political process that it is. It further emphasizes that coordination outcomes are enhanced when actors exercise power with others (cooperation, learning, and deliberation) as opposed to power over others (coercion and manipulation).

Australia's political engagement on health and climate change: the MJA-Lancet Countdown indicator and implications for the future.

Australia's political engagement on health and climate change: the MJA-Lancet Countdown indicator and implications for the future.

COP-27: A great opportunity to address the double crisis of food security and climate change–and for the EU to re-align its farm to fork strategy

The 27th Conference of the Parties (COP 27) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC) held in November 2022 in Sharm-el-Sheik, Egypt, ended with joint commitments to compensate for loss and damage and increase funds for climate change adaptation in future. This outcome is likely to be supportive of current efforts to render agricultural systems in low income tropical countries more resilient and productive through locally adapted forms of sustainable intensification. However, the farm-to-fork (f2f) strategy launched in 2020 by the European Union (EU) has set targets that associate sustainable agriculture primarily with extensification rather than intensification. This paper critically reviews the literature that assesses the impact of current agricultural, environmental and development policies on global food security, biodiversity and climate change. It challenges the view that the European Green Deal and the f2f strategy will have its desired effects. It also argues that the intention of the European Commission (EC) to promote the f2f strategy in low income tropical countries may not be compatible with its commitment to the ownership principle in development assistance. The decision of the EC in fall 2022 to propose a regulatory framework on new breeding techniques (NBTs) indicates that methods of sustainable intensification may be reconsidered if they serve the goals of the Green Deal and the f2f strategy. Such a readjustment would also be in line with the outcome of COP27 and indicate that the polarized global debate on sustainable food systems may become more pragmatic and outcome-oriented again.

Changing Undergraduate Funding Mix and Graduate Degree Attainment

ABSTRACT Previous studies of the role of college students’ funding sources in their educational outcomes have focused on individual funding sources and have not paid much attention to the mixing of multiple sources. As rising college tuition has heightened the financial burden on college students, the use of multiple funding sources has become an adaptive funding strategy for completing a college degree. Using discrete funding-source information from the National Survey of College Graduates, this study offers the first exploration of the change in funding mixes across three cohorts — born in 1953–1962, 1963–1972, and 1973–1982 respectively — and their association with graduate degree attainment. The proportion of students who utilized only one or two funding sources decreased, while those who juggled three or more sources increased. Contrary to the oldest cohort, for whom the association between undergraduate funding mix and graduate degree attainment was relatively weak, in the recent cohort, students mobilizing multiple sources became less likely to obtain a graduate degree compared to those fully funded by their families.

Innovative development of domestic business: a new vector of Ukraine’s foreign economic strategy

The article examines the innovative development of domestic business as a new vector of Ukraine’s foreign economic strategy. Key aspects such as research and development, partnerships, culture of innovation, technology implementation, continuous improvement, financing of innovations and adaptation to market changes are presented. The advantages of international cooperation for joint innovation projects and export of Ukrainian innovative products to the world market have been investigated.

Assessing Barriers to Scale-up Adaptation Finance for India

Assessing Barriers to Scale-up Adaptation Finance for India

Interacting adaptation constraints in the Caribbean highlight the importance of sustained adaptation finance

Adaptation to ever intensifying climate change is of paramount importance to reduce its impacts, in particular for those at the frontlines of climate change such as the Caribbean Small Island Developing States (SIDS). However, a range of constraints make it harder to plan and implement adaptation and thus hinder adaptation progress. Here, we provide an assessment on regional perceptions of adaptation constraints and avenues to overcome them based on a mixed-method approach, combining an online survey and semi-structured interviews with adaptation experts from Caribbean SIDS. We find that finance is the largest constraint being faced which closely interacts with information, human capacity and governance constraints throughout the entire adaptation process. Such interacting constraints can lead to vicious cycles profoundly hindering adaptation and therefore need to be addressed in parallel. Our results highlight how adaptation actors at the national level, in particular national governments, have a key role to play when overcoming constraints for the implementation of adaptation projects at the local level, alongside regional and international organisations.

Fiscal Decentralization and Nature-Based Adaptation Financing: A New Perspective on Sovereign Bond Yields

Fiscal Decentralization and Nature-Based Adaptation Financing: A New Perspective on Sovereign Bond Yields

Assessing Barriers and Enablers for Scaling up Blended Finance in India For Financing Adaptation Projects

Assessing Barriers and Enablers for Scaling up Blended Finance in India For Financing Adaptation Projects

Towards adaptive and transformative finance for urban areas? A framework to analyse the responsiveness of adaptation finance to urban challenges in the global South

Funds-based mechanisms for urban adaptation finance are still underexplored. Addressing this gap, as well as the need for greater learning about ‘how’ urban adaptation finance operates, this paper proposes a conceptual framework for such analysis that considers complexity, uncertainty, transformation and vulnerability. We analyse 39 urban projects financed by Climate Adaptation Funds (CAFs) using a qualitative approach. The findings indicate the ongoing dominance of national governments at all stages of the funding cycle, and of a focus on “hard” adaptation measures, but also a diverse set of stakeholder relationships involved in CAF finance which offers potential for greater multi-stakeholder and multisectoral management of complexity. Few projects, however, address the management of uncertainty. While upscaling from projects is a common preoccupation, catalysing effects across sectors are limited, and transformative mechanisms for addressing vulnerability are limited to consultation with vulnerable groups. Innovations are highlighted which merit further exploration through case study analysis.

Adaptation finance failing to reach the most vulnerable: A multi-level model of household political power in Madagascar

International financial support for climate adaptation is expected to double by 2025. As adaptation finance expands, however, concern is growing that it is failing to benefit those most vulnerable to negative climate impacts. Qualitative studies have demonstrated how entrenched forms of inequality, such as patronage, can enable elite capture of international resources and prevent benefits from reaching relatively vulnerable households within communities. This study contributes to the literature on power in adaptation and climate finance by quantitatively analyzing the distributional outcomes of a UN Adaptation Fund project in the Aloatra-Mangoro region of Madagascar. We employ mixed-methods to examine how informal mechanisms of patronage influenced the distribution of project benefits. Using a multi-level model to analyze 599 household surveys, we compare the political connectivity of beneficiary and non-beneficiary households. We find that households that participated had higher levels of political connectivity than those that did not. This finding is robust across three different measures of participation and is reinforced by qualitative findings from formal and informal interviews. We conclude that rather than targeting the most vulnerable, the project likely disproportionately benefited households already better positioned to adapt and exacerbated inequality within targeted communities. By unpacking how household-level political power shaped access to benefits, this study advances discussion on rethinking approaches to power and inequality in internationally financed adaptation.

Forest Degradation Index: A Tool for Forest Vulnerability Assessment in Indian Western Himalaya

The global climate is showing altered temperatures and precipitation levels. Forests can be a stabilizing force in climate change. They regulate the nutrient cycle, protect species and diversity, and support livelihoods that drive holistic growth. Presently, the forest ecosystem’s capacity to withstand change is being undermined by the rate of change, along with anthropogenic pressures and the specificities of mountainous regions. Here, we attempted to design a ‘forest vulnerability index’ using field measurements and household surveys. A total of 71 quadrants were laid out, and 545 respondents were interviewed in 91 villages along the altitudinal gradient (altitude < 1200 m asl (Zone A), 1200–1800 m asl (Zone B), and >1800 m asl (Zone C)) of the Pauri district of Uttarakhand, India. The village-level data were normalized and combined to represent climate change impacts and the dimension of vulnerability. The IPCC (2014) protocol was used to assess forest vulnerability. The highest vulnerability was recorded in Zone ‘B’, and higher sensitivity, higher climate change impacts, and lower adaptive capacities were recorded in Zone ‘B’ and ‘C’. The approach is comparable within the district and between the states. In enhancing our shared understanding of forest degradation, the results are of value to policy/decision-makers, implementers, and adaptation funding agencies, who can use them to assess the scale, cause, and actions for adaptation.

Climate Change and the Caribbean: Challenges and Vulnerabilities in Building Resilience to Tropical Cyclones

Caribbean Small Island Developing States (SIDS) is one of the most vulnerable regions in the world to the impacts of climate change. The region has prioritized adaptation to climate change and has implemented many adaptation actions over the past 20 years. However, the region is becoming increasingly vulnerable to the impacts of tropical cyclones (TC). This paper analyses the impacts of TC on the region between 1980 to 2019. It aims to examine the economic loss and damage sustained by the region, identify the sectors most impacted, and ascertain the perspectives of key stakeholders on the factors that hinder building resilience. Statistical analysis techniques and semi-structured interviews were to unpack and understand the dataset. The paper finds that economic loss and damage has gradually increasing between 1980 to 2009 with a drastic increase between 2010 to 2019. The paper highlights the agriculture, housing, transport, and utility sectors as the most impacted. The findings also call to attention the need for increased access to adaptation financing for SIDS, the disadvantages of the income status that hinders building resilience, and the need for increased Early Warning Systems. The paper recommends revising the per capita national income as an eligibility criterion for accessing concessional development finance assistance, a comprehensive EWS for the countries in the region, and consideration of debt relief for countries affected by TC.