Addressing the adaptation finance gap: scaling up investment in climate change adaptation using blended finance solutions
type: CreativeWork
description: Climate change is a major global threat with widespread and devastating impacts for ecosystems and human livelihoods. Although efforts to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases that cause climate change are being undertaken by the international community, they fall far short of what is needed to avert catastrophic climate change. The negative impacts of climate change are disproportionately borne by the poorest communities and countries. Countries must adapt their economies and people to a warmer and less inhabitable planet. The global costs of adapting to unavoidable climate impacts could be in the region of USD 280-500 billion per year by 2050, while only about USD30 billion per year is currently being invested globally in adaptation. There is an urgent need to find ways to massively scale up funding to adapt to climate change and build the resilience of people and the ecosystems. The private sector is seen as an untapped potential for scaling up investment in adaptation, but there are a number of barriers. To unlock the private sector potential, the public sector needs to provide the enabling environment and catalytic funding to improve the risk and return profile of potential investment. Blended finance structures are of interest in this regard due to their potential to attract private investment into adaptation activities that would otherwise be perceived as too risky, by using public funds to de-risk investments. However, this is a new area of work and the literature on blended finance for adaptation is sparse, with very few empirical studies on the subject. This study sought to shed light on two research questions: i) what are the barriers to financing adaptation, for the public and private sectors? and ii) what is the role of blended finance in scaling up funding for adaptation and resilience to climate change? It used qualitative data obtained through expert interviews, as well as a case study of a blended finance facility for adaptation in the agriculture se…
abstract: Climate change is a major global threat with widespread and devastating impacts for ecosystems and human livelihoods. Although efforts to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases that cause climate change are being undertaken by the international community, they fall far short of what is needed to avert catastrophic climate change. The negative impacts of climate change are disproportionately borne by the poorest communities and countries. Countries must adapt their economies and people to a warmer and less inhabitable planet. The global costs of adapting to unavoidable climate impacts could be in the region of USD 280-500 billion per year by 2050, while only about USD30 billion per year is currently being invested globally in adaptation. There is an urgent need to find ways to massively scale up funding to adapt to climate change and build the resilience of people and the ecosystems. The private sector is seen as an untapped potential for scaling up investment in adaptation, but there are a number of barriers. To unlock the private sector potential, the public sector needs to provide the enabling environment and catalytic funding to improve the risk and return profile of potential investment. Blended finance structures are of interest in this regard due to their potential to attract private investment into adaptation activities that would otherwise be perceived as too risky, by using public funds to de-risk investments. However, this is a new area of work and the literature on blended finance for adaptation is sparse, with very few empirical studies on the subject. This study sought to shed light on two research questions: i) what are the barriers to financing adaptation, for the public and private sectors? and ii) what is the role of blended finance in scaling up funding for adaptation and resilience to climate change? It used qualitative data obtained through expert interviews, as well as a case study of a blended finance facility for adaptation in the agriculture se…
author: Brown, Louis Helen
keywords: development finance
date published: 2022
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:23:31Z
provider: University of Cape Town
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Graduate School of Business (GSB)

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/39047