Developing countries will need about 305 billion dollars a year to adapt to climate change, the UN Environment Programme finds

4 November 2026

The UN Environment Programme released its 2026 Adaptation Gap Report ahead of the COP31 climate conference. It estimates that developing countries will need roughly 305 billion dollars a year by 2035 to build resilience and cut climate risk. International public adaptation finance reached 28.2 to 31.7 billion dollars in 2024, only about a billion dollars more than the year before, and its growth is flattening. Even if that finance triples to 85 to 120 billion dollars a year, it would cover only 20 to 29 per cent of the estimated need after inflation. The 305 billion dollar figure leaves out the private sector's own needs, so the real gap could be twice as large. Flows between developing countries rose from 3.8 billion dollars in 2019 to 9.6 billion dollars in 2024. UNEP's Executive Director Inger Andersen said the world is not ready to adapt even to present conditions. The tripling goal was agreed at the previous climate conference in Brazil.