Saturday, November 22, 2025

Closing the Climate Resilience Gap: Lessons from UNEP’s Adaptation Gap Reports


United Nations Environment Programme’s Adaptation Gap Report (2025)

When Maria – a smallholder farmer in Mozambique – watched the rains come later and later each season, and when Elisapeta  – living on a vulnerable Samoan island in Oceania  – saw the sea creep closer to his home, these weren’t just isolated stories of climate change. They were the lived realities behind the warnings of the United Nations Environment Programme’s Adaptation Gap Reports (UNEP, 2014–2025).

Since the first edition over a decade ago, UNEP’s message has been unwavering: climate risks are accelerating, adaptation finance and implementation are falling short, and transformational, not incremental, change is urgently needed.

Escalating risks outpacing our efforts

From the outset, UNEP cautioned that climate impacts were arriving faster than societies could prepare for. The Adaptation Gap Report 2020 warned that “the world must plan for, finance and implement climate change adaptation measures appropriate for the full range of global temperature increases—or face serious costs, losses and damages” (UNEP, 2020).

By the following year, the 2021 report concluded that “growth in climate impacts is far outpacing our efforts to adapt” (UNEP, 2021). The 2025 edition echoes that concern even more starkly, warning that the world is “gearing up for resilience—without the money to get there” (UNEP, 2025).

For Maria, this means worsening droughts; for Elisapeta, it’s the sea eating away at ancestral land. UNEP’s data backs up what they already know: climate risk is accelerating faster than adaptation progress.

Progress in planning, but finance and implementation still lag

UNEP’s reports consistently highlight improvements in adaptation planning. By 2022, 84% of countries had at least one national adaptation plan, policy, or strategy in place (UNEP, 2022). Yet progress on paper hasn’t translated into tangible results.

The 2025 report shows that estimated adaptation costs for developing countries could reach US$310 billion annually by 2035, or up to US$365 billion when based on national adaptation plans and NDCs (UNEP, 2025). However, international public adaptation finance flows were only US$26 billion in 2023, down from US$28 billion the year before. That means developing countries receive barely one-tenth of what they need.

As UNEP notes, “the adaptation finance gap is widening, not closing” (UNEP, 2025). For Elisapeta, that means his country has plans but no budget to elevate homes or protect coasts. For Maria, drought-resilient seeds exist, but she can’t access them without support.

Transformational change—not incremental steps—is needed

From the early editions, UNEP has urged governments to move beyond short-term, project-based measures. The 2020 report emphasised that adaptation must be “integrated across sectors and scales” (UNEP, 2020). The 2024 edition reinforced this, calling for a shift “from reactive, incremental, project-based financing to anticipatory, strategic, and transformational adaptation” (UNEP, 2024).

The 2025 report continues that call, arguing that adaptation must “transform systems—agriculture, water, cities—rather than patch vulnerabilities one project at a time” (UNEP, 2025). For communities like Maria’s and Elisapeta’s, that means not just coping, but rebuilding for resilience and equity.

Why do the same messages keep returning?

Because they mirror the reality of a world that’s planning more than it’s doing. Risks are rising faster than responses; finance remains inadequate; and incremental efforts no longer match the scale of the challenge.

Each Adaptation Gap Report is both a warning and a roadmap. It reminds us that adaptation isn’t a future luxury—it’s a present necessity. And unless the global community acts boldly now, the “gap” UNEP describes won’t just remain; it will define the future of millions like Maria and Elisapeta.

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