There is no one denying that climate change is one of the greatest challenge this world has to face.

To overcome it, there is a clear commitment from governments all over the world. In 2015, almost 200 countries become signatories of Paris Agreement, which signifies commitment to reduce greenhouse gases emission and curb global warming below 2°C above pre-industry level.

Fast forward almost 8 years on, there are significant attempts to fulfill said commitments. Chief among these examples is the development, both in the international stage or various countries all around the world. Carbon market has enabled businesses to reduce emission, and simultanously raise funds in order to finance the transition into a sustainable economic model.

However, one equal aspect of climate change that is often forgotten: climate change adaptation.

Why adapting to climate change matters?

There are countless instances on how climate change has caused significant impacts all around the world.

The change of pattern in hydrological cycle is one of those instances. Climate change has been driving the change in rainfall pattern, thus altering hydrological system as well as the quality and quantity of water resources in the process. In other places, glacier has been subsiding, and increase runoffs in the downstream area. Subsequently, the change in hydrological cycle also impacts agricultural sector, and places substantial barriers for countries to achieve food security.

Climate change has also increased the risk of health of human. Deaths due to weather condition has been increasing, and there are diseases the risk of which has surged as climate variabilities becomes a norm.

Moreover, the frequency of extreme events such as heatwave, drought, floods, typhoon, and forest fire has surged for the last few years.

Hence in addition to the mitigation actions, governments along with relevant stakeholders has to work together to enhance the resiliency of communities and environment, to adapt to the aforementioned events.

It should be highlighted further that there are specific group of people and area that needs to be prioritized in this actions, due to the result of past economic development results that had been unequally distributed between various factions of society.

Scaling up the investment on adaptation is key

Leading to the UN COP27 in Egypt, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) released Adaptation Gap Report 2022. It highlights the necessity of funding and implementation of adaptation for countries and communities with high vulnerability to climate change.

The report notes that the investment requirement in developing countries will skyrocket to $340 billion per annum on 2030, yet to this date, the financial resources focused on adaptation is less than a tenth of said value.

What is equally concerning is that, while 80% of countries has climate adaptation planning instrument in place, only a third of 197 government has scalable target and timescale for to adapt in climate change. Further, only 40 countries has submitted their national adaptation plan to the Un The commitments from developed countries to mobilize USD 100 billion per annum on climate financing for developing countries back in 2020 notwithstanding, more than half of this allocation is directed on climate mitigation actions. This fact is factually counterproductive when being assessed against the background of Paris Agreement, which also places a paramount of importance for the world to adapt to climate change together.

Fortunately, progress is also being made. There are 8 countries who committed USD 105.6 million for adaptation in COP27, next to the USD 230 million already pledged during last year’s COP26 in Glasgow. The Adaptation Fund has also received more than USD 230 million in new pledges.

On every corner of the world, the impacts of climate change could hardly be ignored anymore. Therefore, every element of communities all around the world needs to increase their capacity to adapt to climate impacts. While there are measures and planning that could saves considerable amount of cost, substantial planning, investment, and collaboration is a necessity in climate actions.

Like every other environmental related actions, scaling up investment in climate adaptation is key to attain the resilience of ecosystem, communities, and economy. On top of it, adapting also means adjusting to new conditions, which also means changing the usual way on how human would treat the natural resources.