Asia has ‘enormous’ shortfall of funds to adapt to climate change, warns ADB

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The Asia-Pacific needs to increase funding for climate change adaptation by up to 12-fold to prepare the world’s most populous region for the dangers of global warming, the Asian Development Bank has warned.

The Manila-based development bank estimated that between $102bn and $431bn was needed in annual financing to adapt to climate change across the Asia-Pacific region from 2023 to 2030, compared with just $34bn in commitments it recorded in 2022.

“The gap between adaptation needs and finance flows is enormous,” the bank said in a report published on Thursday.

The ADB said nearly half the adaptation funds needed in the region were needed for coastal and river flood protection.

The report said climate change impacts in the Asia-Pacific would be more severe than global trends. Under a high-emissions scenario, the destructive power of typhoons and cyclones would double and flood losses would increase because of more concentrated rainfall and glacial melt, it said.

The ADB’s warning comes at a critical moment for multilateral responses to climate change. Next month’s UN COP29 climate summit is expected to feature tense discussions over how much support rich nations provide to developing countries to address global warming.

The Asia-Pacific region covered by the report comprises all 49 ADB members. The group contains some of the world’s biggest oil and gas producing countries including China, the world’s biggest polluter, and COP29-host Azerbaijan, which is still increasing its oil and gas production.

The ADB called for a sharp increase in both private and public funding to “protect critical infrastructure, safeguard livelihoods, and ensure food and water security in the face of climate challenges”.  

This year is on track to be the warmest on record, according to data from international agencies collated by the World Meteorological Organization, after 2023 marked a new peak for greenhouse gas emissions.

Emissions must be reduced by 43 per cent by 2030 compared with 2019 to meet climate targets set under the Paris Agreement.

Sea surface temperatures, ocean heat and acidification, sea level rise, Antarctic Sea ice cover and glacier retreat have all reached new records in the past year, which has also featured extreme drought and rainfall events.

According to a report last month from China Water Risk, a research and advisory group, the pace of global warming currently puts the world on track for sea level rises of 1 metre by 2050 and 2-3 metres by the end of the century.

The ADB report also underscored that the effects of climate change were expected to be “regressive”, hitting “vulnerable and poor people the hardest”.

The bank said that under a high-emissions scenario, climate change could reduce the region’s GDP by about 17 per cent by 2070, reflecting the economic damage wrought by sea-level rises, especially in lower-income and fragile economies and those with large coastal populations.