Multilateral adaptation finance for systemic resilience

The document examines the gap between scientific recognition of transboundary climate risks and the current local focus of multilateral adaptation finance. It proposes a shift toward 'systemic resilience' to address risks that cross borders via shared ecosystems, trade, and financial flows.

• Transboundary climate risks are categorized by type—including shared resources, trade links, movement of people, financial flows, and infrastructure—and by complexity, ranging from common risks in neighbouring countries to 'teleconnected' risks affecting non-neighbouring countries through systems like commodity markets.
• An analysis of projects approved between 2010 and 2020 from the Green Climate Fund (GCF), Adaptation Fund (AF), and Climate Investment Funds (CIFs) reveals that most funding is directed to individual countries for local projects. The GCF and CIFs committed only a small percentage of funding to regional projects, while the AF committed approximately 26.28%.
• Most existing regional projects focus on 'common risks' (such as cyclones in the Caribbean) and coordination rather than risks that cross borders. While the Adaptation Fund has supported five projects explicitly framing risk as transboundary, none of the analyzed funds supported projects addressing teleconnected risks between non-neighbouring countries.
• The authors propose two operational paths for systemic resilience: using current funding models to address lower-complexity transboundary risks (e.g., shared river basins) and adopting 'paradigm-shifting' approaches for complex teleconnected risks, involving actors like the G20, World Food Programme (WFP), and World Trade Organization (WTO).
• Current funding models are limited by project-based timeframes (five to seven years), country-level administration that hinders shared ownership, and eligibility rules—such as the AF's 'developing countries' mandate—which prevent investments in middle-income exporters that could benefit lower-income importers.
• Barriers to systemic resilience include vested interests of wealthy countries and contributors who prefer the evaluative ease of project-based approaches, as well as a reluctance to classify trade or migration investments as climate adaptation.

APA

Browne, K., Beaussart, R., Benzie, M., Canales, N., Klein, R., Harris, K., Haque, N., Lager, F., Lindblom, A., Marbuah, G., & McAuley, S. (2022). Multilateral adaptation finance for systemic resilience. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/sei-brief-multilateral-adaptation-finance-browne-2022.pdf

Chicago

Browne, Katherine, Raphaelle Beaussart, Magnus Benzie, Nella Canales, Richard Klein, Katy Harris, Nabil Haque, et al. Multilateral adaptation finance for systemic resilience. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2022. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/sei-brief-multilateral-adaptation-finance-browne-2022.pdf.

Wikipedia

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BibTeX

@techreport{browne2022multilateral, author = {Browne, Katherine and Beaussart, Raphaelle and Benzie, Magnus and Canales, Nella and Klein, Richard and Harris, Katy and Haque, Nabil and Lager, Frida and Lindblom, Andrea and Marbuah, George and McAuley, Sarah}, title = {{Multilateral adaptation finance for systemic resilience}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2022}, month = nov, url = {https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/sei-brief-multilateral-adaptation-finance-browne-2022.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }