ADAPTATION FINANCE BULLETIN |
UNFCCC Adaptation Committee | | Interview with the newly elected Co-Chairs of the Adaptation Committee | | As the Adaptation Committee marks the 20th edition of its Adaptation Finance Bulletin, and considering the evolving landscape of adaptation finance, how do you see the Bulletin continuing to add value to Parties and other stakeholders? | | |
“The Bulletin provides an important source of information to get an overview of funding opportunities and activities. It offers valuable insights into the experiences of peers navigating access to finance and identifying adaptation solutions suited to their contexts.
Going forward, I hope the Bulletin continues to showcase practical examples, innovations, and lessons that can inspire action and help build capacity. It is a communication tool that brings visibility to adaptation efforts that are often still under-recognized.” - Giuliana Torta
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“From my perspective, the Bulletin has become a practical resource that brings together the newest decision making on climate finance, as well as knowledge and experiences in a clear and accessible way. As the global climate finance architecture evolves, I believe it can continue playing an important role in helping stakeholders understand the diversity of sources, approaches, and tools being used to support adaptation.
It also helps demystify finance flows and highlight progress, while offering space for good practices and lessons to be shared across regions and sectors. That kind of transparency is key for learning and collaboration.” - Rosa Morales
| | News from the Adaptation Fund | | Photo credit: Adaptation Fund | |
Adaptation Fund Board approves USD 137 million in new projects, doubles country cap to USD 40 million
At the 44th Adaptation Fund Board Meeting held in Bonn, Germany from 10–11 April 2025, the Adaptation Fund Board approved over USD 137 million in new projects, marking the first time funding exceeded USD 100 million at a single meeting since the Fund's inception. The funding includes approvals of 16 full concrete adaptation projects, raising the Fund’s total to nearly USD 1.4 billion. Several countries including Saint Kitts and Nevis, Somalia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Eswatini, and the Philippines received funding for the first time.
Another key decision by the Board was to double the Fund’s country spending caps from USD 20 million to USD 40 million while also raising the cap on individual single-country projects from USD 10 million to USD 25 million and raising the cap on regional projects from USD 14 million to USD 30 million. The Board also approved USD 30 million for the launch of a new regional aggregator program for channeling Locally Led Adaptation (LLA) grants to a wide range of local actors including non-accredited entities, to accompany its existing funding windows for single-country LLA programs.
Other key milestones achieved at the meeting included Kenya as the first country to have accredited two national implementing entities (NIE) with the Fund and setting the Fund’s 2025 resource mobilization goal at a floor of USD 300 million, considering a nearly USD 600 million pipeline of projects in development.
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The Adaptation Fund and the Fund for responding to Loss and Damage agree to a framework of collaboration
In January 2025, the secretariats of the Adaptation Fund and the Fund for responding to Loss and Damage have entered into a framework for cooperation in view of the need to foster innovation and leverage collective expertise of the two funds to create scalable solutions that address both immediate and long-term impacts of climate change. In line with the Paris Agreement’s affirmation of the need to enhance coherence and complementarity between climate funds, the intended collaboration will initially focus on five common areas: (i) enhancing readiness through technical support, training and resources; (ii) knowledge sharing through joint research, publications, workshops and other knowledge activities; (iii) resource mobilization from various sources, including public and private; (iv) supporting countries by leveraging the funds’ capabilities; and (v) collective advocacy.
| | Photo credit: Robert Balog from Pixabay | | |
New free e-course on the Locally Led Adaptation program
The Adaptation Fund has launched a new free and self-paced e-course that provides an overview of the Locally Led Adaptation grants and explains how to complete the project proposal template.
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Built to last? Evaluating the sustainability of adaptation outcomes
The Adaptation Fund’s Technical Evaluation Reference Group (TERG) held a webinar to introduce the ex-post evaluation toolkit on 24 April 2025. The toolkit is a structured guide designed to help implementing entities, evaluation contractors, and climate adaptation professionals assess the long-term sustainability and evolving impact of adaptation interventions and how these contribute to shaping resilience locally.
| | News from the Global Environment Facility | | Photo credit: UNEP/ Lisa Murray | | GEF Council approves innovative work program during 69th meeting | |
During its 69th meeting, which took place from 2–6 June 2025, the GEF Council approved a new, wide-ranging work program, including 14 initiatives that will take place in 35 countries. Nearly half of these are least developed countries and small island developing States. The program will advance goals across the six conventions that the GEF supports and will provide funding for climate transparency, microfinance for locally led action on resilience, integrated water resources management, and more. The program will allocate USD 195 million and generate USD 2.6 billion from outside sources.
The Council meetings followed last month’s start of the GEF-9 replenishment process, for which donor countries and partners gathered in Paris to discuss priorities and ambitions for the multilateral trust fund’s next four-year funding cycle that will stretch to June 2030.
| | New projects to enhance climate resilience in Africa and the Pacific | | During the 69th GEF Council meeting, the Council of the LDCF and the SCCF approved almost USD 40 million for new projects to boost resilience across Africa and the Pacific. Financed through the GEF’s LDCF, the initiatives will promote nature-based solutions, strengthen climate-smart livelihoods, and scale up access to adaptation finance for rural and remote communities from the Sahel to the Solomon Islands. New projects include a regional initiative to restore degraded landscapes and strengthen natural resource management in Chad and Mali, efforts to revitalize the climate-vulnerable shea ecosystem to support sustainable livelihoods in Uganda, and support for climate-resilient agriculture and food systems blending scientific and traditional knowledge in the Solomon Islands. | | News from the Green Climate Fund | | Recap of the GCF Regional Dialogue with the Pacific and Asian SIDS | | |
In May 2025, more than 150 representatives from the frontlines of the climate crisis in the Asia-Pacific region have come together to identify programming opportunities that would realise their countries’ climate aspirations. Representatives from 13 Pacific small island developing States (SIDS) plus Maldives and Timor-Leste convened in the Cook Islands to share successes and lessons from partnering with the GCF and to explore ways to strengthen collaboration to support enhanced project pipelines. Representatives included GCF’s government focal points (National Designated Authorities), Accredited Entities (national and international), Civil Society Organisations, and other partners.
The GCF updated participants on its latest policies, tools, and guidance to simplify and quicken access to finance. In addition, a series of technical discussions and workshops focused on specific programming areas for the private and public sectors within GCF’s updated Strategic Plan. In turn, the Dialogue enabled the GCF to better understand and respond to the priorities, challenges, and needs of SIDS in the region.
| | 2025 GCF Regional Dialogue with the Caribbean | | In March 2025, over 200 stakeholders including governments, National Designated Authorities, Accredited Entities, and other partners from the Caribbean region met in Saint Kitts and Nevis to discuss climate plans and how to access GCF funding. The theme of the gathering, “Towards a resilient Caribbean: Advancing regional solutions for climate action, sustainable growth and inclusive development,” emphasized the potential of the region to thrive if joining forces on climate-related issues. The four-day dialogue was used to resolve barriers to collaboration and to envision how GCF support could be geared towards addressing climate-related challenges in a sustainable, inclusive, and gender-responsive manner. At the end of the event, the Government of Saint Kitts and Nevis announced plans to lead regional efforts to accelerate climate ambitions in the Caribbean, focusing on energy, water, and food security. It also indicated that a major focus of scaling up regional ambitions on climate would be to explore further innovative approaches and financial instruments for increasing resilience, including through private sector-led initiatives. Relatedly, GCF Executive Director, Mafalda Duarte underscored the potential of the GCF’s growing investment of more than USD 700 million in the region to help build resilient and prosperous societies. | | |
News from the Fund for responding to Loss and Damage
| | Photo credit: Barbados Government Information Service | | Fifth meeting of the Board establishes start-up phase of the Fund | | |
The Board of the Fund for responding to Loss and Damage held its 5th meeting in Bridgetown, Barbados from 8–10 April 2025. A key result of the meeting was the decision to establish the Barbados Implementation Modalities (BIM) as the “start-up phase” of the Fund. This phase will serve as the initial period to test and refine operational approaches and generate lessons learned for the longer-term operational policies and procedures that are to be developed and implemented in parallel. The BMI will consist of a first set of interventions, for the calendar years of 2025 and 2026, for a total of USD 250 million. During this phase grants between USD 5 and 20 million will be allocated to activities, programmes, and projects focused on bottom-up, country-led and country-owned approaches to loss and damage. These activities are aimed to be representative of the full scope of the Fund as contained in chapter II of the Governing Instrument. The Board decided to launch a call for proposals and/or funding requests from developing countries for approval by the Board at its sixth meeting which is to take place from 9–11 July 2025.
| First annual high-level dialogue | |
The inaugural high-level dialogue of the Fund for responding to Loss and Damage was held on 25 April 2025 on the sidelines of the 2025 Spring Meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund. Under the headline “Strengthening Response(s) to Loss and Damage through Complementarity, Coherence, and Coordination”, the dialogue brought together global leaders, multilateral institutions, and civil society and was enriched by powerful interventions from leaders across the globe. Key outcomes include commitments to streamline access to climate finance and reduce funding fragmentation and strong calls for agility, speed, and locally led solutions in climate responses.
| Recap of the Finance in Common Summit | Photo credit: Ruslan Sikunov from Pixabay | Fifth Finance in Common Summit | The fifth edition of the Finance in Common Summit took place from 26–28 February in Cape Town, South Africa. The summit brought together over 2000 delegates, including half from the public development banks (PDBs) ecosystem as well as governments, international organizations, regulators, private sector, investors, credit rating agencies, philanthropy, civil society, think tanks and academia. They were convened under the theme “Fostering Infrastructure and Finance for Just and Sustainable Growth”, meeting alongside the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting. Relevant themes discussed included risk assessments and adaptation investments, climate and nature finance, global partnerships to promote climate action and environmental sustainability projects, and technical assistance and synergies on the climate-biodiversity-food nexus. During the summit, the Finance in Common System (FiCS) also launched consultations on the first Public Development Banks (PDB) Reference Book, which consolidates information about multilateral, regional, national and sub-national development banks. It also shares insights on the important role that these institutions can play in a modern economy, the challenges they face, and the debates that surround them. | Photo credit: UNFCCC/ Antonio Pérez | Highlights from the first Climate Week of 2025 | |
UNFCCC resumed Climate Weeks in 2025 in a new format, aligning them more closely with the intergovernmental process under the Convention and the Paris Agreement, and helping to translate decisions adopted in this process into on-the-ground implementation. From 19–23 May 2025, the first Climate Week was held in Panama City, Panama. Under the headline “Dialogues for Ambition and Implementation”, the event brought together Parties and non- Party stakeholders and provided a space for dialogue, capacity-building and showcasing innovative solutions to facilitate urgent, inclusive, and coordinated climate action.
At the heart of the Climate Week was the new Implementation Forum, a first-of-its-kind platform to bring together all stakeholders to unlock progress across three critical pillars: finance, technology, and carbon markets. Discussions within the Forum were held in the form of labs focused on identifying and strengthening enabling conditions and means of implementation. The Finance Lab made it clear that the global climate finance goals will only deliver real change if countries can access and manage funds; thus, financial innovation and institutional readiness are critical. Participants called for enhanced country platforms (e.g., Integrated National Financing Frameworks) that align Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) with sectoral investment plans, supported by multi-ministry engagement, private sector integration, and public financial management reforms. The Lab also focused on advancing locally led climate finance ecosystems with participants emphasizing the need to empower local actors (e.g., cooperatives, NGOs, Indigenous Peoples) through technical assistance, direct access modalities, and localized finance matchmaking tools.
The Climate Week also featured a consultation to present the updated technical guidelines for the process to formulate and implement NAPs. The event enabled participants to better understand the updated guidelines as prepared by the Least Developed Countries Expert Group and how to apply them. The event went through the updated NAP technical guidelines in detail, including the NAP table of contents, achieving the Global Goal on Adaptation targets through NAPs, scaled-up implementation and financing, and effective implementation and resource mobilization.
| News from the Adaptation Committee | Photo credit: UNFCCC/ Adaptation Committee | Adaptation Committee kicks off 2025–2027 workplan activities at its 27th meeting | The Adaptation Committee (AC) held its 27th meeting from 6–9 May 2025 in Bonn, Germany. The meeting kickstarted discussions on various activities of the new 2025-2027 AC flexible workplan, broadly centered around supporting Parties in implementing the targets of the UAE Framework for Global Climate Resilience and/through their NAPs and on contributing to the assessment of global adaptation progress. Planned activities include: (a) updating the online resource on navigating the landscape of support for NAPs, taking into account the UAE Framework targets and the updated NAP technical guidelines; (b) organizing the next virtual thematic dialogue on “Opportunities for accessing adaptation finance from the operating entities of the Financial Mechanism”, including latest updates from the funds; (c) a structured approach to providing recommendations by 2028 on how to improve adaptation reporting; (d) completing and continuously updating the country profiles on the interactive portal on the State of Adaptation by Parties and developing the first synthesis report of the portal’s information in 2026; and (e) activities and products to enhance the AC's communication and outreach. The AC also discussed the design of the next Adaptation Forum which is to take place in 2026 and efforts to enhance its collaboration with external experts and organizations. | | June Climate Meetings (SB 62) | | Photo credit: UNFCCC/ Amira Grotendiek | | |
The 62nd session of the Subsidiary Bodies under the UNFCCC will take place from 16–26 June 2025 in Bonn, Germany. A series of events on climate finance, including adaptation finance, are scheduled to take place during these mid-term meetings. Participants are advised to stay updated on any last-minute changes regarding the location, format, or timing of these events. For the most current information, refer to the SB 62 Overview Schedule, the SB 62 schedule of events and the list of side events. Below is a list of selected events at SB 62 organized by the UNFCCC and other organizations and stakeholders. Please note that this is not an exhaustive list of events.
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Building Tomorrow: Data and Policy Solutions to Finance Climate Technology in Buildings and Infrastructure – Wednesday, 18 June 2025, 12:00–13:15 (CEST) | Room Berlin
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Scaling investments for climate action via locally-led sustainable agrifood system transformation – Thursday, 19 June 2025, 15:00–16:15 (CEST) | Room Kaminzimmer
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Making the case for ambitious, implementable and investable NDCs – Friday, 20 June 2025, 13:30–14:45 (CEST) | Room Berlin
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Advancing the Baku to Belém Roadmap: Mobilizing High-Impact, Transformational Finance in EMDEs – Friday, 20 June 2025, 16:30–17:45 (CEST) | Room Bonn
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NAP 3.0+: Leveraging Climate and Disaster Risk Finance and Insurance (CDRFI) for Adaptation – Monday, 23 June 2025, 15:00–16:15 (CEST) | Room Berlin
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Scaling Up Adaptation: Insights, Tools, and Strategies for NDCs 3.0 – Monday, 23 June 2025, 13:30–14:45 | Room Berlin
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What can we expect from climate finance in 2025? Article 2.1(c), the US$ 1.3 trillion roadmap, and the road to COP30 – Tuesday, 24 June 2025, 10:30–11:45 (CEST) | Room Bonn
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NDC 3.0 investment planning - quantifying investment needs and mobilizing climate finance – Wednesday, 25 June 2025, 13:30–14:45 (CEST) | Room Berlin
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From Bonn to Belém: Elevating Adaptation Finance – Thursday, 26 June 2025, 13:30–14:45 (CEST) | Room Berlin
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