UN flags adaptation finance gap and Lancet Countdown warns rising heat toll ahead of COP30

Summary

The UN highlighted UNEP's adaptation gap report, which estimates developing-country adaptation needs of over $310 billion per year by 2035, and cited the Lancet Countdown report on health and climate tying rising heat-related mortality and food insecurity to current policy choices. The spokesman urged COP30 to deliver a global action plan on reso

The UN spokesperson highlighted two reports released that day: the UN Environment Programme's adaptation gap report and the 2025 Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate produced with the World Health Organization.

On the UNEP report, the spokesperson said adaptation planning and implementation are improving but adaptation finance needs in developing countries by 2035 "are over $310,000,000,000 per year," a figure the spokesperson described as "12 times as much as current international public adaptation finance and finance flows." He quoted the secretary-general saying the report is "a red alert" and urged that COP30 in Brazil must "deliver a global action plan to ensure developing countries have the resources and capacity to protect their people."

Regarding the Lancet Countdown report, the spokesperson said it warned that overreliance on fossil fuels and failure to adapt are already harming human health. He cited the report's finding that heat-related mortality has increased by 23% since the late 1990s and that governments spent $956,000,000,000 on net fossil fuel subsidies in 2023, noting that these subsidies exceed pledged support to climate-vulnerable countries.