Adaptation Fund at COP25

The 25^th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP25), as well as CMP15 and CMA2 will be held from December 2-13, 2019 in Madrid, Spain. The conference was originally scheduled to take place in Santiago, Chile, but the venue was changed due to the difficult situation the country was undergoing. However, Chile remains as the COP25 Presidency with Spain stepping forward to host this conference of “action”, demonstrating the spirit of cooperation and partnership in the fight against climate change.

The Adaptation Fund (AF) will have a strong presence again this year at COP25, including high profile side events on themes such as enhancing action, innovation, learning and cooperation in adaptation, a multimedia exhibit on Innovation and Youth Engagement in AF Projects, media events, and key meetings and panel discussions with key stakeholders, top global climate officials, national implementing partners and civil society. The Fund will promote the launch of a suite of new innovation, project scale-up and learning tools to help developing countries further access climate finance and foster more innovative adaptation practices and actions on the ground through both countries and the private sector.

The Fund has a robust set of adaptation actions in Chile, including the country’s first adaptation project on the ground that is also aligned with its national adaptation goals.

The Adaptation Fund operations were launched 12 years ago under the Kyoto Protocol and has also been formally serving the Paris Agreement since January of this year, following a milestone decision by Parties at last year’s COP 24 UN climate conference in Poland. The Fund is a key contributor to the goals of the Paris Agreement through its concrete adaptation projects on the ground for the most vulnerable that help bridge the adaptation funding gap, and building countries’ adaptive capacities through its pioneering Direct Access modality. Its Board has continued to advance its administrative and institutional processes so that it continues to serve the Paris Agreement smoothly.

Very often the Fund’s concrete projects are the first adaptation actions on the ground in many vulnerable places across the globe, and are producing both immediate benefits to the most vulnerable local communities and valuable experiences and lessons that can later be scaled up. Its pioneering Direct Access modality also builds national adaptation capacities by empowering countries to build ownership in adaptation.

The Fund has been in record demand over the last few years as the urgency to address climate change continues to rise. The Adaptation Fund Board has approved a record US$ 188 million in new projects this year alone, and now has a total of 100 approved concrete adaptation projects on the ground.

The Fund broke its single-year resource mobilization record last year for the second year in a row with nearly US$ 129 million in new pledges received, and will need to continue to raise its ambition to meet the continuous high demand for its work.  It further has a project pipeline of nearly US$ 250 million.

The Adaptation Fund has committed over US$ 720 million for climate change adaptation and resilience projects and programmes for the most vulnerable communities of developing countries around the world with more than 8.7 million direct beneficiaries.  It has activities in nearly 90 countries, more than half of which are least developed countries or small island developing states.

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