• UNEP’s 2025 Adaptation Gap Report warns of rising financing needs.

• International public funds for adaptation fell to $26 billion in 2023.

• Current support covers less than one-twelfth of developing countries’ needs.

Developing countries will require between $310 billion and $365 billion per year by 2035 to adapt to climate change, according to the Adaptation Gap Report 2025: Running on Empty released on October 29 by the UN Environment Program (UNEP). The estimate highlights an urgent need for increased financing over the next decade to help vulnerable nations cope with global warming.

The report includes a broad range of interventions—from building flood defenses such as dikes, dams, and retention basins, to developing drought- and salt-resistant crops, and restoring mangroves and wetlands. This updated estimate revises previous projections under the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG), which had set at least $300 billion by 2035 for both mitigation and adaptation efforts.

Despite commitments from developed countries to scale up climate funding, UNEP notes a decline in adaptation finance flows. International public funding for adaptation to developing nations reached $26 billion in 2023, down from $28 billion in 2022. The report adds that these funds have grown by only 7% per year between 2019 and 2023, below the 12% annual rate needed to meet the Glasgow Climate Pact target of doubling adaptation finance to $40 billion by 2025—a goal that now appears unlikely to be achieved.

Overall, the adaptation needs of developing countries are 12 to 14 times higher than the commitments made by industrialized nations. UNEP points out that this gap persists despite progress in national planning: more than 172 countries, or 87% of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), now have a national adaptation plan, policy, or strategy.

This marks a slight increase from last year and aligns with the global trend toward the 2030 goal for universal national adaptation frameworks under the UAE Framework for Global Climate Resilience (UAE FGCR).

With less than two weeks before the 30th UN Climate Conference (COP30) in Belém, Brazil, the report underscores that climate finance will remain at the center of global negotiations.