6 December 2014: The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has launched its Adaptation Gap Report 2014 on the sidelines of the Lima Climate Change Conference. The report aims to identify adaptation needs and realities on the ground and focuses on funding, technology and knowledge gaps in developing countries. The report states that, by 2050, the annual cost of adaptation in developing countries will likely reach two to three times the US$70-100 billion previously estimated, even if mitigation goals are met.

Anne Olhoff, UNEP DTU Partnership, provided an overview of the report, stressing that estimating the adaptation gap is far more challenging than calculating the emissions gap. The report, which also identifies gaps in capacity, governance and understanding the interrelation between the gaps, provides a framework for future work on better defining and bridging the gaps.

Florent Baarsch, Climate Analytics, explained that the report considers both 2˚C and 4˚C temperature rise scenarios and uses a combination of top-down and bottom-up approaches. He compared the World Bank and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that US$70-100 billion will be needed for adaptation with UNEP’s figure (up to US$300 billion), noting the discrepancy is due to factors such as those considered by temperature-rise scenarios.

Barbara Buchner, Climate Policy Initiative (CPI), said development finance institutions contribute the bulk of adaptation finance. She reported that more than half of bilateral adaptation-related activities target multiple environmental objectives, including mitigation, biodiversity and desertification.

Other speakers at the launch event contextualized the gap, noting that the 2˚C scenario is far from ideal, as it still involves important impacts in many regions, and stressing the time dimension of the gap, noting that uncertainty increases as one projects farther into the future. The panelists highlighted a mismatch in the identification of needs and the actual finances available for specific sectors, querying whether the problem is the lack of technologies or the inability for these sectors to access them. Another participant suggested focusing on the implications of the gap rather than on the gap per se.

In the discussion, participants considered, inter alia: the inclusion of a public component when considering the knowledge gap; the calculation of the gap figures in terms of adaptation actions; and the need for a private-sector investment assessment. [IISD RS ENBOTS Coverage] [IISD RS ENBOTS Video Coverage of Side Event] [IISD RS Coverage of Lima Climate Change Conference] [UNEP Press Release] [UN Press Release] [Publication: UNEP Adaptation Gap Report 2014]