By Lisandra Paraguassu and Kate Abnett
BRASILIA / BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Brazil wants to help developing countries secure more funding for adapting to climate change, the COP30 climate summit president said, as a U.N. report estimated the world will need to spend $310 billion a year by 2035 to prepare for higher sea levels, hotter days and other conditions of a warmer atmosphere.
That is roughly 12 times the amount now spent on annual climate adaptation efforts, according to the U.N.’s Adaptation Gap Report. COP summits to date have not yielded major increases in funds for climate adaptation, which lag behind investments in renewable energy and other technologies that focus on reducing the greenhouse gas emissions causing climate change.
The U.N. report was released on Wednesday, the same day the Caribbean island nation of Jamaica woke up to the devastation wrought by a deadly Category 5 hurricane that delivered severe flooding, landslides and power losses.
Warmer ocean temperatures create more intense and frequent hurricanes that pack higher rainfall and greater storm surge risk due to rising sea levels, according to climate scientists, highlighting the increasing urgency of adaptation measures.
“More than ever, the general public, governments in general, cities in general, want resources for adaptation,” Brazil’s COP30 summit president Andre Correa do Lago told Reuters in an interview in Brasilia.
COP30 will take place November 10-21 in the port city of Belem, a gateway to the Amazon rainforest.
He said he hopes to produce a “package of resources” for adaptation financing during the summit.
“Some will come from rich countries, some come from philanthropy, and above all, the attention of multilateral development banks for adaptation,” Correa do Lago told Reuters, without providing further details.
The U.N. report said international public finance flows for climate adaptation projects in developing countries in 2023 were about $26 billion – far below the $310 billion that will be needed.
Earlier this week, billionaire investor and philanthropist Bill Gates called on world leaders to shift focus towards resources for improving and protecting lives, rather than on temperature goals and emissions limits.
With the United States – the world’s biggest economy – now rejecting climate action, Brazil hopes COP30 can convince the public that others have not abandoned the issue.
“We have to somehow manage to convey that there is progress on this agenda, because we are facing a phase in which most of the public think that this agenda is losing ground,” said Correa do Lago.
Countries should focus on delivering real-world actions and financing guarantees, rather than haggling over a negotiated statement that all governments will agree to, he said.
Climate finance is a fraught topic at U.N. climate summits. Last year’s COP29 deal in Baku, Azerbaijan, committed wealthy countries to provide $300 billion in annual climate finance by 2035. The deal was slammed by poorer nations as woefully inadequate.
Azerbaijan and Brazil are drafting a “Baku to Belem roadmap” with options for scaling annual climate finance to $1.3 trillion from sources including private investors and development banks.
(Reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu, in Brasilia, and Kate Abnett, in Brussels; Editing by Katy Daigle and Nia Williams)
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