Adaptation: Needs, Financing and Institutions

The document argues that adaptation is essential because some climate impacts are already unavoidable, regardless of mitigation efforts. It highlights a critical funding gap for developing countries, where current financial flows may need to increase by two orders of magnitude. The authors emphasize that adaptation is an iterative process linked to broader development goals, such as poverty reduction and good governance. To improve effectiveness, the paper recommends 'mainstreaming' adaptation into national planning and creating transparent, principle-based funding mechanisms, such as levies on carbon market transactions, to ensure that support for developing nations is new and additional rather than absorbed into existing official development assistance.

• Adaptation and mitigation are interdependent; while mitigation is crucial to prevent climate change from reaching levels where adaptation is no longer feasible, some impacts are already unavoidable, making adaptation a necessary component of domestic and global policy.
• There is a significant shortfall in adaptation funding for developing countries, with estimates suggesting annual needs could range from US$9 billion to over US$100 billion, requiring a scale-up of current funding by two orders of magnitude.
• Adaptive capacity is fundamentally linked to development progress; poverty reduction, education, health, and good governance are essential for building the resilience of communities to climate risks.
• The 'mainstreaming' of adaptation into sectoral and national planning is seen as an efficient way to make investments climate-proof, but it raises concerns that adaptation funding may not be 'new and additional' and could instead be absorbed into existing official development assistance (ODA) budgets.
• The authors propose that developed countries should adopt a transparent, principle-based allocation of responsibility for funding, potentially using levies on carbon market transactions and air travel to generate resources based on the polluter-pays principle.

APA

Klein, R. J., Kartha, S., Persson, Å., Watkiss, P., Ackerman, F., Downing, T. E., Kjellén, B., & Schipper, L. (2008). Adaptation: Needs, Financing and Institutions. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Climate/adaptation_needs_institutions.pdf

Chicago

Klein, Richard J.T., Sivan Kartha, Åsa Persson, Paul Watkiss, Frank Ackerman, Thomas E. Downing, Bo Kjellén, and Lisa Schipper. Adaptation: Needs, Financing and Institutions. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2008. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Climate/adaptation_needs_institutions.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Klein |first1=Richard J.T. |last2=Kartha |first2=Sivan |last3=Persson |first3=Åsa |last4=Watkiss |first4=Paul |last5=Ackerman |first5=Frank |last6=Downing |first6=Thomas E. |last7=Kjellén |first7=Bo |last8=Schipper |first8=Lisa |title=Adaptation: Needs, Financing and Institutions |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=2008 |url=https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Climate/adaptation_needs_institutions.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{klein2008adaptation, author = {Klein, Richard J.T. and Kartha, Sivan and Persson, Åsa and Watkiss, Paul and Ackerman, Frank and Downing, Thomas E. and Kjellén, Bo and Schipper, Lisa}, title = {{Adaptation: Needs, Financing and Institutions}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2008}, url = {https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Climate/adaptation_needs_institutions.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }