Investigating Procedural and Distributive Equity in Decentralised Adaptation Finance

Under the Paris Agreement, high-income countries pledged $100 billion annually to support climate action in low-income countries, with at least half dedicated to climate adaptation. It is increasingly clear, however, that this funding has failed to reach the most vulnerable countries and communities.

Funders recently acknowledged these shortcomings and committed to rapidly scale-up funding for adaptation.

Significant questions nevertheless remain about how new financial pledges can enable equitable and context-specific adaptation.

Traditional adaptation finance models have been criticised for concentrating decision-making among elites at global and national levels, with vulnerable countries and communities underrepresented.

Many victims of climate impacts remain politically marginalised, limiting their ability to influence project design and implementation.

In an attempt to improve equity and localise adaptation, the Green Climate Fund is experimenting with new decentralised models that devolve greater decision-making authority to national and sub-national levels.

This project aims to investigate whether and how this new decentralised model improves procedural and distributive equity in countries receiving adaptation financing. We examine two decentralised pilot projects in Namibia and the Caribbean.

As adaptation finance is rapidly scaled up, findings will inform efforts to enable more equitable and locally-appropriate adaptation in low-income countries.