Tracking Adaptation Finance: Advancing Methods to Capture Finance Flows in the Landscape

The briefing identifies significant challenges in tracking adaptation finance, such as context dependency and lack of standardized reporting. It proposes a three-category framework to distinguish between asset-focused, system-focused, and sectoral benchmark investments. To capture missing data, the authors suggest four technical approaches: keyword searches, sales data analysis, policy matching, and geographic matching. Initial assessments of Climate Bonds Initiative and CDP data show potential for capturing private finance, while the document recommends integrating adaptation into national planning and collaborating with data providers to enhance transparency.

• Adaptation finance is significantly harder to track than mitigation finance because its outcomes are context-dependent, relying on specific regional or local vulnerabilities rather than universal greenhouse gas reduction metrics.
• The Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) currently faces data gaps where the Global Landscape of Climate Finance does not track any private sector adaptation finance and has limited tracking of public domestic adaptation finance.
• The authors propose a three-tier categorization framework to align adaptation tracking: Category 1 focuses on direct investment in adaptation outcomes (asset-focused), Category 2 covers assets that benefit from primary investments (system-focused), and Category 3 uses total sectoral investment as a benchmark.
• Four technical methods can be used to create shortlists of potential adaptation projects for manual review: keyword searches, sales data analysis, policy matching (against National Adaptation Plan priorities), and geographic matching (against climate risk data).
• An initial assessment of IJGlobal data from 2008 to 2018 identified USD 12.7 billion in financing flows that align with Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).
• Analysis of Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI) data shows USD 2.6 billion in bonds allocating proceeds to adaptation and resilience, with USD 1 billion going to land use and agriculture, USD 380 million to wastewater, and USD 240 million to infrastructure.
• In 2018, 139 companies with an "A" rating from CDP reported USD 13.9 billion in costs associated with managing physical climate-related risks.

APA

Richmond, M., & Hallmeyer, K. (2019). Tracking Adaptation Finance: Advancing Methods to Capture Finance Flows in the Landscape. Climate Policy Initiative. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Tracking-Adaptation-Finance-Brief.pdf

Chicago

Richmond, Morgan, and Karoline Hallmeyer. Tracking Adaptation Finance: Advancing Methods to Capture Finance Flows in the Landscape. Climate Policy Initiative, 2019. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Tracking-Adaptation-Finance-Brief.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Richmond |first1=Morgan |last2=Hallmeyer |first2=Karoline |title=Tracking Adaptation Finance: Advancing Methods to Capture Finance Flows in the Landscape |publisher=Climate Policy Initiative |date=December 2019 |url=https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Tracking-Adaptation-Finance-Brief.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{richmond2019tracking, author = {Richmond, Morgan and Hallmeyer, Karoline}, title = {{Tracking Adaptation Finance: Advancing Methods to Capture Finance Flows in the Landscape}}, institution = {Climate Policy Initiative}, year = {2019}, month = dec, url = {https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Tracking-Adaptation-Finance-Brief.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }