After Donald J. Trump’s election threatened to upend global efforts to fight climate change, a United Nations group on Thursday warned in a new report that developing nations need hundreds of billions of dollars per year in aid to adapt to a warming planet.
With temperatures on the rise, many more countries are trying to protect themselves from heat waves, floods and other climate shocks, according to the report, from the U.N. Environment Program. At least 171 countries now have at least one national climate adaptation plan in place.
But those efforts remain badly underfunded, particularly in poor countries. While wealthy nations provided $28 billion in aid for climate adaptation in 2022, the report estimates that developing nations need between $187 billion and $359 billion annually in additional funding to cope with climate change disasters.
World leaders were set to meet next week in Azerbaijan at the U.N. climate summit, called COP29, to discuss how to increase financial assistance to developing nations. Reaching an agreement could be more difficult now that Mr. Trump, who has dismissed climate change as a hoax, is the United States’ president-elect.
“Trump’s victory is a profound blow to global climate justice,” said Harjeet Singh, global engagement director at an activist group called the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative. His “refusal to provide climate finance will deepen the crisis,” Mr. Singh added, “endangering lives and livelihoods — especially in regions least responsible for, yet most impacted by, climate change.”
The question of what rich countries owe to poor countries has been a sticking point in international climate talks for years. Wealthy areas like the United States and Europe have historically pumped more heat-trapping greenhouse gases into the air than others by burning coal, oil and gas, while poorer countries, such as those in Africa, are more vulnerable to climate disasters.
Under the 2015 Paris climate agreement, wealthy nations agreed to provide significantly more financial aid to developing nations. The vast majority of that aid, however, goes toward helping countries reduce their greenhouse gases, such as by building solar or wind farms.
But as global emissions keep rising and as the planet gets hotter, the necessity of adapting to heat waves, floods, sea level rise and other effects of climate change is getting more attention. Adaptation aid from wealthy nations and development banks jumped to $28 billion in 2022 from $21 billion in 2021.
Climate adaptation can include planting drought-resistant crops, raising buildings to avoid flood damage or moving communities away from coastlines. It might also include broader infrastructure improvements, such as paved roads or hospitals, that can make countries more resilient to a broad range of disasters.
“There’s a tendency when people talk about solving climate change, they tend to jump straight to decarbonization, to cutting emissions,” said Vijaya Ramachandran, director for energy and development at the Breakthrough Institute, an environmental research organization. Ms. Ramachandran is a co-author of a recent report that urged the World Bank and other financial institutions to improve their support for climate adaptation in places like sub-Saharan Africa.
“But for a lot of poor countries they are not emitting very much, what they really need is adaptation,” Ms. Ramachandran said. “They are trying to cope with a problem they didn’t create.”
The U.N. report warns that many nations are still adapting in “reactive” ways — such as by building flood defenses after a heavy rainstorm — rather than pursuing more far-reaching plans to prepare for hotter temperatures.
It remains to be seen whether wealthy countries can find more money for aid. The report makes several suggestions, including new reforms at institutions like the World Bank that could unlock more financing as well as debt restructuring programs. The report notes that other than China, developing countries are now spending more on debt interest payments than they need for adaptation.
The Biden administration has said that the United States is on track to provide $11.4 billion in climate assistance this year, more than double the amount in 2022.
Yet Mr. Trump has dismissed attempts to address climate change and is likely to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement next year, as he did in his first term. That will make it difficult for the Biden administration to make any credible promises of additional aid at the talks in Azerbaijan.
U.N. officials have pressed wealthy countries to act, arguing that it is in their self-interest to help poorer countries adapt to reduce the risk of mass displacement and potential conflict.
“Raging storms are flattening homes, wildfires are wiping out forests and land degradation and drought are degrading landscapes,” said Inger Andersen, the executive director of the U.N. Environment Program. “Without action, this is a preview of what our future holds and why there simply is no excuse for the world not to get serious about adaptation, now.”
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