The Adaptation Fund received new pledges from several contributor governments totaling nearly USD 116 million. The pledges coincided with the fifth anniversary of the Paris Agreement and Climate Ambition Summit 2020.

The Adaptation Fund Board had raised its resource mobilization target for 2020 by 30% to USD 120 million in November to account for its USD 280 million active project pipeline. With the new pledges, the Fund closed out the year just shy of that target, but stated that this total represents “a remarkable effort during a challenging economic year ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic.” 

Germany was the Fund’s largest contributor at EUR 50 million. Italy contributed EUR 30 million. Sweden contributed USD 15.2 million, a quarter of its four-year pledge made in 2019. Additionally, Belgium’s Walloon Regional Government contributed EUR 3.8 million, and Brussels-Capital Regional Government contributed EUR 185,000. 

On 14 December, the Fund held a virtual Contributor Dialogue for Ambition in Adaptation Finance. Ministers and high-level government officials gathered with national implementing entities and civil society representatives to recognize the Fund’s continued deliverance of adaptation projects, building of country ownership through the Direct Access modality, and expansion and adaptation of its work despite the challenges posed by COVID-19.

In expressing his appreciation for the new pledges and previous contributions, Ibila Djibril, Chair, Adaptation Fund Board, stated that the Fund “continues to grow, with 115 projects in more than 100 countries serving 27 million total beneficiaries.” “Many projects are creating scalable models,” he said, and many projects are “adapting directly to help vulnerable communities build resilience amid the COVID-19 pandemic, both to climate change, as well as health, environmental and economic risks.”

Established under the Kyoto Protocol and supervised and managed by the Adaptation Fund Board, the Adaptation Fund has committed USD 778 million for climate change adaptation and resilience projects and programs since 2010, including 114 localized adaptation projects in the most vulnerable communities of developing countries with over 9 million direct beneficiaries. [Adaptation Fund Press Release]

By Gabriel Gordon-Harper, Thematic Expert on Climate Change and Sustainable Energy