Adaptation shouldn't be on the back-burner

While climate mitigation is critical, we need action on climate adaptation now to respond to the devastating impacts of climate change.

Photo Credit: The Globe and Mail

Written by: Soomin Han

This Op-Ed is the second in a two-part series written by Soomin Han, who attended COP this year as advisor to the CEO for the Global Centre of Adaptation. 

As news headlines extensively covered how countries shied away from phasing out fossil fuels at the recent United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of Parties, better known as COP28, another negotiation stream was headed off-track — climate adaptation.  

One of the key results to be delivered at COP28 was the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA), a framework to support and inform the planning and financing of climate adaptation efforts. Although established under the Paris Agreement in 2015, the GGA and the topic of adaptation received little attention, overshadowed by mitigation. 

Mitigation measures are often what comes to mind when thinking of climate action and addresses the root cause of climate change by reducing carbon emissions. Adaptation, on the other hand, involves building and strengthening the resilience of infrastructure, communities, and people’s capacities to prepare and respond to harms caused by climate change. However, due to the highly localized and context-specific nature of adaptation issues, the GGA was intended to provide financing and broader language to support a wide reach of countries in responding to the effects of climate change that are already occurring.  

What went wrong? When the final text of the GGA was revealed, the key language of “common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities” (CBDR-RC) was missing from the text. This principle, which ultimately forms the basis of the Paris Agreement on climate change, recognizes that developed countries who caused the problem should be held accountable and take responsibility for addressing the consequences of climate change that are affecting developing countries. Although many developed countries acknowledged the importance of this principle, they refused to include it in the text of the GGA, consequently avoiding concrete measures to fund reparations for countries with a lower capacity to respond to climate change. 

Globally, the world needs an estimated $387 billion USD per year until 2030 for adaptation, but the world is short an estimated  $194 to 366 billion USD per year. While this sounds significant, the money is out there — it’s just being misspent on fossil fuels.  By comparison, between 2019 and 2020, an average of $892 billion USD per year was invested globally in fossil fuels, and another 1.89 trillion USD worth of subsidies was provided to the fossil fuel industry.

To make matters worse, funding for climate mitigation significantly outsizes climate adaptation. Approximately 91% of global climate finance is directed at mitigation-related initiatives, while adaptation-related initiatives receive approximately 5 per cent. The other 4 per cent accounts for  projects that benefit both adaptation and mitigation. 

Additionally, climate finance is largely provided through loans to be paid back with interest, and countries and regions that need critical climate financing to survive are forced to take on additional loans to pay back that debt. Nearly two-thirds of developing countries are already struggling with existing debt, so they are forced to spend five times more paying back those loans instead of investing in climate adaptation. 

It is undeniable that climate mitigation and adaptation are intrinsically linked, and mitigation is the best adaptation measure. However, too often, this logic has been used to put adaptation on the backburner and consider it an afterthought. Climate adaptation is not something that will come after the world remains below the 1.5°C temperature rise limit — it must be addressed simultaneously with mitigation efforts. 

To be clear, bringing adaptation to the forefront does not mean that the world has to give up on mitigation. Mitigation is still necessary to reduce emissions and prevent the worst effects of climate change. However, adaptation is needed to strengthen the resilience of food and water systems, communities, infrastructure, and other critical services such as hospitals and schools. 

Without even hitting the 1.5°C temperature rise — though we are dangerously close and are on track to reach 2.9°C this century — the world is already seeing the loss and damage that climate disasters create around the world and in our own communities. If adaptation efforts continue to take the backseat, we will only see more destruction. The time is now to strengthen adaptation efforts and double adaptation finance — and then some —  to close the adaptation gap. 

But one question always derails these efforts: why should Canada care and pay for climate adaptation when we have our own domestic issues to deal with?  

Climate adaptation at its heart is a justice and an equity issue. Although climate change impacts us all, it disproportionately impacts frontline Indigenous communities, low-lying and small-island states, and low-income countries. Simply put, those who contributed the least to climate change are paying the highest cost. 

Despite Canada contributing approximately 2.6% of cumulative global greenhouse gas emissions, Canada’s per capita emissions are three times the global average and we rank fourth for highest GHG emissions per capita. All the devastation caused by climate change across the world this year – the wildfires in Maui, flooding in Bangladesh, wildfires in the Northwest Territories, severe drought and heat waves across the entire continent of Africa – are to some degree, directly caused by Canada’s carbon emissions. 

Adaptation is not just about Canada’s global responsibilities and paying its fair share. At the domestic level, deep inequities and disproportionate impacts of climate change affect Indigenous nations, remote and northern communities, and low-income neighbourhoods — they, too, require funding and attention to build climate resilience. The critical need for climate adaptation and building resilience is not only present at a distant place, it is also needed right here at home.

That’s why serious global action on climate adaptation is necessary — because a global commitment would help us all respond to the effects of climate change that are devastating us both now and are only going to get worse in the future. 

Canada is already experiencing the damaging impacts of climate change, and the need for adaptation is obvious not just in the number of people and communities impacted by catastrophic climate disasters, but also in dollars. From floods alone, annual flood damage to buildings and homes are projected to increase from $60 to $300 million in the next 30 years, and the direct costs of combating wildfires will cost approximately $1 billion per year. All of Canada’s major industries and sectors are threatened by the impact of climate change, risking investments, imposing high insurance, repair, and rebuilding costs, and endangering job security. If we don’t take action on adaptation, the total cost of damage from climate change will add up to an incredible $25 billion more in losses as early as 2025. 

Climate mitigation without adaptation fails to ensure that climate action is equitable, with finance and efforts driven to communities and countries most impacted. Adaptation is pivotal in building capacity to be resilient to and address the growing inequities caused by climate change, because it can protect our infrastructure, essential services, and our livelihoods from vulnerability to climate disasters.

Without sufficient adaptation financing, people and communities will be left without the tools and resources to survive. Adaptation can no longer wait, and if we have a shot at addressing climate change in a way that centres justice, equity, and well-being of communities, we have to start bringing adaptation to the front burner, next to ambitious mitigation efforts.