Climate Adaptation and Resilience Finance

Finance for climate adaptation has reached an all-time high in recent years yet remains a small share of climate finance compared to mitigation. This corner of the climate finance landscape has been plagued not only by weak commitments, but also by a lack of consensus about what constitutes effective adaptation financing strategies and legitimate projects, as well as challenges tracking and quantifying current adaptation-focused funding flows. There are also serious concerns about justice and equity impacts, given uncertainties about funding flows between, and within recipient countries, as well as questions about whether adaptation finance delivers improved resilience outcomes for those regions and communities most vulnerable to the hazards of climate change. In this context, more research is needed to better understand the most promising strategies for increasing adaptation finance sources and deploying such sources effectively and efficiently to achieve just, resilience-building outcomes.

In partnership with practitioners in the field, SFI researchers are developing a research and innovation agenda to explore three key themes for improving the financing of climate adaptation and resilience efforts:

Theme 1: Identifying and comparing models of adaptation finance
Theme 2: Determining key concepts, priority populations and projects
Theme 3: Improving the governance of adaptation finance

SFI’s mission is to design and implement the next frontier of effective, efficient, and accountable financing strategies for climate mitigation and adaptation. Strategic partnerships are central to our approach: engaging with leaders and practitioners helps identify critical challenges, promising solutions, and implementation pathways that require collaboration across different sectors, industries, jurisdictions, and landscapes. For more information about SFI research on finance for climate adaptation and resilience, email Abigail Martin: anmartin@stanford.edu.