A man in Pakistan walks over his collapsed mud house following heavy monsoon rains in 2022. The increase in heavy rain can be attributed to climate change, as a warmer atmosphere has the capacity to hold more moisture. This extreme weather is affecting developing countries the most, despite their minimal contribution to the problem. Unfortunately, these countries are not receiving the financial support they were promised to help them adapt to and mitigate the impacts of climate change. In fact, in 2021, developed countries provided 15% less funding for climate adaptation than the previous year. The United Nations estimates that there is now a significant gap between the funding needed for adaptation projects in developing countries and the actual amount of public funding they are receiving, which ranges from $194 billion to $366 billion per year. This means that poorer countries require at least 10 times more funding for climate adaptation than the $21.3 billion they received in 2021. As a result, these countries are unable to invest in measures such as flood defenses, drought-resistant crops, and early warning systems, which would help mitigate the effects of climate change. The longer this financial gap persists, the more damage these countries will endure. To address this issue, a “loss and damage” fund was established at the last UN climate negotiations, and discussions at the upcoming COP28 summit will focus on how to effectively implement this fund. Pieter Pauw, a researcher at Eindhoven University of Technology, emphasizes that there is a desire among people to adapt and take action against climate change, but the lack of available finance hinders their efforts. Pauw cites the devastating floods in Pakistan as an example of the consequences of inadequate adaptation to climate change. Flooding in Pakistan in 2021 claimed many lives and caused significant damage, highlighting the consequences of heavy rainfall, which is more likely due to climate change. The UN report on climate funding was released shortly after a group of international scientists expressed concerns that the target of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius would not be achieved. Failure to meet this target could result in catastrophic climate impacts, including mass extinctions and a significant rise in sea levels. The average global temperature has already increased by 1.1 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels over the past decade. Paul Watkiss, a climate change consultant and co-author of the UN funding report, emphasizes the adverse effects of global warming on developing countries. Insufficient adaptation finance negatively impacts their development. There is uncertainty about how quickly the funding gap can be closed, even though developed countries pledged to double their adaptation funding to around $40 billion annually by 2025. This amount still falls far short of the funding required by developing nations. However, there appears to be growing attention and commitment to address this issue, with the United Arab Emirates, the host of this year’s UN climate summit, taking a particular interest in climate finance. Efforts are also being made to change the operations of institutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in order to direct more climate funding to developing countries. Wanjira Mathai, managing director of Africa and global partnerships at the World Resources Institute, stresses the importance of swiftly implementing adaptation strategies and building resilience to combat the immediate dangers of climate change.