Increasing climate risk is a growing threat to development. Adverse climate impacts are already threatening socioeconomic development and undermining progress in poverty reduction, with impacts on food production, water security, human health, and infrastructure – all hindering efforts of countries to meet their Sustainable Development Goals. 

Large gap in adaptation implementation. There is a serious gap in implementing adaptation actions at the transformational levels needed to respond to the climate crisis, with solutions largely pursued via project-focused approaches and not fit-for-purpose to deal with long-term climate risk, especially for the most vulnerable.

Adaptation plans are not investment ready. While many developing countries in Asia and the Pacific have National Adaptation Plans to consider short-, medium-, and long-term adaptation needs, they rarely provide the necessary detail for investment planning and strategic resource allocation and mobilization. 

Financing for adaptation remains limited. The financing committed to adaptation is seriously inadequate, yet national finance and planning agencies, and banks are often minimally involved, resulting in poor integration of adaptation solutions into macroeconomic policy, fiscal planning, budgeting, and public investment processes.