White paper: Enabling and financing locally-led adaptation

• by MSC and CIFAR ALLIANCE
• Feb 26, 2024
• 1 min
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Current global spending on climate adaptation falls significantly short of the required amount, and only a fraction reaches developing countries and locally-led initiatives. This underscores the urgent need for localized adaptation strategies that resonate with communities’ experiences. Despite growing recognition, efforts have been sparse to use digital technologies or engage the private sector to finance locally-led initiatives. This whitepaper explores the importance of locally-led adaptation, barriers to its implementation, characteristics of successful initiatives, and strategies to finance and scale them up.

The world spends roughly USD 30 billion on climate adaptation annually. However, this represents just 10% of the USD 387 billion needed each year. Moreover, a limited proportion of this funding actually reaches developing countries and finances locally-led initiatives.

This disparity between current funding levels and the projected costs underscores the urgent need for locally-led adaptation to climate change. This localized approach captures the immediacy of climate change impacts and ensures strategies resonate with the community’s lived experiences.

However, little has been done to use digital technologies to scale them or involve the private sector in financing those initiatives. Read on to discover how we can bridge the gap in climate adaptation funding and empower communities to tackle climate change.