UNEP Adaptation Gap Report 2020 Evaluates Climate Planning Progress

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has published the Adaptation Gap Report 2020, their 5th edition. The report results from the participation and contribution of individual experts and professionals from various fields.

The report looks back at the year 2020 with the pandemic as a backdrop. It reviewed how governments used the economic stimulus and whether they took the opportunity to invest in low-emissions technology or green recovery. Data from the report shows otherwise – governments did not take the chance to do this.

2020 is also the year of many extreme climatic events, undeterred by the pandemic. Record high temperatures, droughts, floods, storms, and wildfires in Australia, Brazil, Russia and the US have affected over 50 million people worldwide.

This year’s UNEP report “provides an update on the current actions and emerging results of global adaptation planning, finance and implementation. All three elements are critical for tracking and assessing progress towards the global goal on adaptation”. 

This year’s report focuses on nature-based solutions as a major tool to adapt to climate change impacts and hazards. The report is grouped into three parts:

1. Status and progress of global adaptation planning, finance and implementation;
2. planning, finance and implementation of nature-based solutions for adaptation; and
3. outlook on the global progress of adaptation which forms a synthesis of the critical findings of the report.

To know where each country stands in terms of their climate adaptation efforts and implementation, the gaps in adaptation and mitigation especially in the most vulnerable countries, and the role of nature-based solutions for climate adaptation and mitigation and how to maximise its benefits through innovative financing mechanisms and funding click the link below:

To view the entire report, click the link below:

Source Citation:

United Nations Environment Programme (2021). Adaptation Gap Report 2020. Nairobi. Retrieved from https://www.unenvironment.org/resources/adaptation-gap-report-2020