TRACKING ADAPTATION FINANCE

The guide outlines a process for civil society organizations to monitor adaptation finance, from analyzing national contexts and compiling international data to mapping funding flows and designing local tracking tools. It emphasizes the use of evidence-based advocacy to ensure funds reach the most vulnerable populations.

• There is a significant gap between the estimated costs of climate change adaptation and actual funding; while the World Bank estimated a need for $70 billion to $100 billion per year in 2010, the Global Landscape of Climate Finance 2014 report estimated total global funding at approximately $25 billion.
• International climate finance commitments have historically been imbalanced toward mitigation; for example, Oxfam found that only 21 percent of the $30 billion in "fast-start financing" promised in the 2009 Copenhagen Accord supported adaptation.
• Defining adaptation finance is challenging because it is context-dependent; activities like investing in drought-resistant seeds may be adaptation-relevant in some locations but a waste of resources in areas becoming wetter.
• The guide proposes five key principles for assessing the accountability and effectiveness of adaptation finance: transparency, ownership, responsiveness, participation, and equity.
• Tracking adaptation finance requires a five-step process: analyzing the national context, compiling international finance data, mapping funding flows, setting tracking objectives for specific funds, and designing tailored local tracking tools.
• The OECD Creditor Reporting System (CRS) and Rio markers are primary tools for identifying adaptation-relevant projects, though they may provide only high-level information and can be incomplete.
• In the Philippines, AFAI data revealed that between 2009 and 2012, international donors committed over $350 million for adaptation, a figure that was previously unavailable to the government and used to lobby Congress for transparency.

APA

Carvalho, A. P., & Terpstra, P. (2015). TRACKING ADAPTATION FINANCE. World Resources Institute. https://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/AdaptationFinance_Rev3_SglPgs_webFINAL.pdf

Chicago

Carvalho, Annaka Peterson, and Pieter Terpstra. TRACKING ADAPTATION FINANCE. World Resources Institute, 2015. https://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/AdaptationFinance_Rev3_SglPgs_webFINAL.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Carvalho |first1=Annaka Peterson |last2=Terpstra |first2=Pieter |title=TRACKING ADAPTATION FINANCE |publisher=World Resources Institute |date=2015 |url=https://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/AdaptationFinance_Rev3_SglPgs_webFINAL.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{carvalho2015tracking, author = {Carvalho, Annaka Peterson and Terpstra, Pieter}, title = {{TRACKING ADAPTATION FINANCE}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2015}, url = {https://wriorg.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/AdaptationFinance_Rev3_SglPgs_webFINAL.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }