Reforming climate finance: adaptation finance in Africa

Adaptation finance for Africa remains critically insufficient, with 2023 flows to Sub-Saharan Africa reaching only USD 12.9 billion against an annual need of USD 51 billion. Public finance is the dominant source, providing 95% of Africa's adaptation funding in 2023, as adaptation projects are often small-scale, localised, and lack the standardised metrics or predictable returns required to attract private investors. Structural barriers, including complex international funding procedures and fragmented government coordination, have led to less than half of committed adaptation funds in Africa being disbursed between 2014 and 2018. While the private sector's contribution grew to USD 654 million by 2023, it remains a supporting role, with the document emphasizing that grants and concessional loans are essential to avoid exacerbating debt distress in countries where debt interest spending already exceeds health or education budgets. The briefing highlights the upcoming COP30 as a critical juncture to finalise the Global Goal on Adaptation and establish standardised indicators to improve the tracking and bankability of resilience investments.

• International public adaptation finance flows from developed to developing countries decreased from USD 28 billion in 2022 to USD 26 billion in 2023, making the Glasgow Climate Pact goal of USD 40 billion by 2025 unlikely to be met.
• There is a significant funding gap in Sub-Saharan Africa, which requires USD 51 billion annually for adaptation, while actual flows in 2023 were only USD 12.9 billion.
• Public finance is the primary source of adaptation funding in Africa, accounting for 95% of all such funding in 2023, with private sector contributions making up only 5%.
• Adaptation projects are more difficult to finance than mitigation because they are typically smaller, localised, and have indirect benefits such as avoided losses, which makes them less attractive to private investors.
• Institutional and procedural barriers have severely hindered the delivery of funds; between 2014 and 2018, less than 50% of committed adaptation funds in Africa were actually disbursed.
• Non-debt and concessional instruments are critical for African nations because 57% of the population live in countries that spend more on debt interest than on health or education.
• Tracking adaptation finance is complicated by 'dual use cases' where projects provide both adaptation and mitigation benefits, and a lack of standardised metrics for measuring social and ecological adjustments.

APA

Kong, A. (2025). Reforming climate finance: adaptation finance in Africa. Zero Carbon Analytics. https://zerocarbon-analytics.org/insights/briefings/reforming-climate-finance-adaptation-finance-in-africa/

Chicago

Kong, Amy. Reforming climate finance: adaptation finance in Africa. Zero Carbon Analytics, 2025. https://zerocarbon-analytics.org/insights/briefings/reforming-climate-finance-adaptation-finance-in-africa/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Kong |first1=Amy |title=Reforming climate finance: adaptation finance in Africa |publisher=Zero Carbon Analytics |date=14 November 2025 |url=https://zerocarbon-analytics.org/insights/briefings/reforming-climate-finance-adaptation-finance-in-africa/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{kong2025reforming, author = {Kong, Amy}, title = {{Reforming climate finance: adaptation finance in Africa}}, institution = {Zero Carbon Analytics}, year = {2025}, month = nov, url = {https://zerocarbon-analytics.org/insights/briefings/reforming-climate-finance-adaptation-finance-in-africa/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }