The Climate Adaptation Summit (CAS) 2021 launched the Adaptation Action Agenda 2030 and Decade of Action, establishing practical climate adaptation solutions and plans leading to 2030. The Adaptation Action Agenda 2030, which will guide the Decade of Action towards 2030, joins over 50 partners to establish initiatives aimed at concrete actions and partnerships to increase climate resiliency.

The Action Agenda is designed to complement the SDGs and promote progress towards the adaptation and resilience goals of the Paris Agreement on climate change, and encourages partners to collaborate to deploy knowledge tools, technical assistance frameworks, digital innovation, financing solutions, and youth empowerment programmes to support adaptation projects.

Hosted by the Government of the Netherlands and led by former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, CAS 2021 convened virtually. It brought together more than 300 speakers, including over 30 leaders and 20,000 registrations, to accelerate global climate adaptation action by raising ambition, unlocking finance, and leveraging broad-based partnerships. Participants reviewed accomplishments in advancing adaptation since the 2018 creation of the Global Commission on Adaptation (GCA), celebrating the 60 nations which strengthened their national adaptation responses in their updated nationally determined contributions (NDCs).

CAS 2021 opened with a Call to Action from youth in 115 countries asking for a decade of action to combat the causes of climate change and drive climate-resilient development. Speaking at the launch event, Ban Ki-moon addressed the young people, stating: “You are the first generation which has never known a world without global warming. It is the moral duty of my generation to give you the space and the means to succeed where we have failed.”

Leaders at the CAS called for accelerated investment in adaptation. According to the UN Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Adaptation Gap Report, developing countries face USD 70 billion in adaptation costs, likely to rise to USD 140 billion – 300 billion by 2030. UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for 50% of the total share of climate finance to be spent on adaptation, stressing that for every Euro spent in climate adaptation projects, 10 Euros worth of climate damage is prevented. 

Also launched during the Summit were the Adaptation Action Coalition, Race to Resilience, and Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program. Developed by the UK in partnership with Egypt, Bangladesh, Malawi, the Netherlands, Saint Lucia, and the UN, the Adaptation Action Coalition is dedicated to converting international political commitments made through the UN Call for Action on Adaptation and Resilience into concrete projects. It complements the Race to Resilience campaign, created as a sibling to the Race to Zero campaign, to mobilize non-state actors to drive a positive ambition loop for action on resilience. Launched by the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program will mobilize USD 25 billion to scale up and accelerate adaptation work across Africa. [CAS 2021 Outcome Message] [Press Release on the Launch of Decade of Action] [Annex Listing Specific Initiatives] [Press Release on Opening of CAS 2021] [Race to Resilience Press Release] [UNFCCC Press Release] [UN Press Release] [UN Secretary-General’s Remarks to CAS 2021]