About the report

UNEP’s Adaptation Gap Report series focuses on Finance, Technology and Knowledge gaps in climate change adaptation. It compliments the Emissions Gap Report series, and explores the implications of failing to close the emissions gap.

The report builds on a 2014 assessment by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which laid out the concept of ‘adaptation gaps’ and outlined three such gaps: technology, finance and knowledge.

The 2016 Adaptation Gap Report assesses the difference between the financial costs of adapting to climate change in developing countries and the amount of money actually available to meet these costs – a difference known as the “adaptation finance gap”. Like the 2014 report, the 2016 report focuses on developing countries, where adaptation capacity is often the lowest and needs the highest, and concentrates on the period up to 2050.

The report identifies trends and highlights challenges associated with measuring progress towards fulfilling the adaptation finance gap, while informing national and international efforts to advance adaptation. It analyses the ‘adaptation finance gap’ against the background of the provisions laid out in the Paris Agreement, and benefits from the insights included in the INDCs.