When Mitigation Fails, Climate Adaptation Must Take the Lead

Mitigation and adaptation are two complementary ways people can respond to climate change. However, climate mitigation receives more focus and funding.

Mitigation is action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and limit the warming our planet will experience. Climate adaptation is action to help people adjust to the current and future effects of climate change (Campbell & Krol, 2023).

Most funds are directed towards climate mitigation because climate adaptation costs more. OECD figures show that in 2018, 70 % of climate finance was dedicated to mitigation and only 21% to climate adaptation.

The “State and Trends in Climate Adaptation Finance 2024” report highlights significant developments in climate finance. While overall climate finance surged to USD 1.3 trillion annually in 2021–2022—up from an average of USD 653 billion per year in 2019–2020—the increase in climate adaptation finance has been relatively modest. It rose to USD 63 billion, marking only a 28% increase year-on-year compared to the period from 2019 to 2021.

Climate mitigation finance, on the other hand, is growing much faster. The report highlights that developing countries require approximately US$212 billion annually for climate adaptation finance through 2030. However, only US$56 billion was documented for adaptation efforts in 2021 and 2022. This indicates that climate adaptation financing needs to increase nearly fourfold.

Both reports emphasise the urgent need to enhance focus and financing for climate adaptation, particularly as the effects of climate change are accelerating.

Extreme weather events linked to climate change

In partnership with Climate Central, the World Weather Attribution has published its first annual report reviewing some of the most extreme weather events in 2024 and the findings from their attribution studies. 

The report indicates that 2024 was the hottest year on record, warming at 1.3°C above preindustrial levels. Rising temperatures have fuelled unrelenting heatwaves, drought, wildfires, storms, and floods that killed thousands of people and forced millions from their homes.

The report states that devastating floods have marked the last 12 months from Kathmandu to Dubai, from Rio Grande do Sul to the Southern Appalachians. It also indicates that climate change contributed to at least 3,700 deaths and displaced millions across 26 weather events included in the studies.

These numbers come from 219 events that meet the report’s criteria, suggesting that the actual number of people affected by climate change could be in the tens or even hundreds of thousands more (When Risks, 2024).

Surging greenhouse gas concentrations

According to the World Meteorological Organization, carbon dioxide(CO2) – one of the three main greenhouse gases, along with methane and nitrous oxide- accumulates in the atmosphere at a record rate. And because of the extremely long lifetime of CO2 in the atmosphere, “we are committed to rising temperatures for many, many years to come,” says WMO Deputy Secretary-General Ko Barrett.

WMO’s 2024 Greenhouse Gas Bulletin shows that in 2004, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was 377.1 parts per million (ppm), while in 2023, this reached 420 ppm, showing an increase of 42.9 parts per million, or 11.4 per cent in just 20 years.

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also offers a similar finding. Scientists from NOAA’s Global Monitoring Laboratory reveal that levels of the three most important human-caused GHGs—carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, and nitrous oxide—continued their steady climb during 2023.

The global surface concentration of CO2 in 2023 was 419.3 parts per million (ppm), showing an increase of 2.8 ppm and placing the atmospheric CO2 more than 50% higher than preindustrial levels. 2023 also marks the 12th consecutive year that CO2 increased by more than 2 ppm during the 65-year monitoring record.

The WMO emphasises that as long as emissions continue, greenhouse gases will accumulate in the atmosphere, leading to a rise in global temperature. Given the extraordinarily long life of CO2 in the atmosphere, the increase in temperature will persist for several decades even if emissions are rapidly reduced to net zero.

Considering that the world is already more or less locked in for warming and hence the extreme events that it entails, calls for governments to step up climate adaptation response in terms of developing policies, projects, and financial resources to respond effectively.

Failing to adapt to this inevitable reality would be irresponsible, more so that the worst climate impacts will hit the most vulnerable and poor countries the hardest.

Adapting to climate change

Adapting to climate change includes constructing homes and infrastructure capable of withstanding stronger storms and floods and finding efficient and sustainable methods to feed billions of people.

The Reality Project outlines several strategies for adapting to a warming world across various sectors, including infrastructure, agriculture, and coastal management.

Suggested strategies include:

• Building sea walls and elevating infrastructure or retreating from low-lying coastal areas.
• Reducing and recycling water use due to drought conditions.
• Utilising prescribed fires to prevent uncontrolled wildfires.
• Favouring drought-tolerant crops, such as rice, cowpea, and maise, which many African nations have adopted in response to decreasing rainfall.