Date: Wednesday 21 October 2026
Time: 8:00–9:30 EDT (New York) | 14:00–15:30 CEST (Europe) | 15:00-16:30 GMT+3 (Nairobi) | 19:00-20:30 ICT (Bangkok)
As the gap between adaptation needs and available funding widens, the private sector is becoming increasingly important to adaptation finance and investment. Co-organized by the Adaptation Accelerator Hub (AAH), NDC Partnership and Center for Access to Climate Finance, the 2026 AAH Webinar Series examined how public-private collaboration can connect national adaptation priorities with private investment.
The third webinar explored how governments can catalyze private investment through the right policies, regulations, climate data and financial instruments. It followed webinars on adaptation as a strategic business opportunity and innovative financing solutions.
The challenge: The growing adaptation financing gap
As climate impacts intensify, Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States face the most severe consequences. Heatwaves, flash floods, rising sea levels, hurricanes and droughts are taking a growing human and economic toll, damaging infrastructure, disrupting supply chains and threatening food security.
According to UNEP’s Adaptation Gap Report 2025, developing countries will require US$310 billion to US$365 billion annually by 2035 to build climate resilience. International public adaptation finance stood at just US$26 billion in 2023 – leaving needs 12 to 14 times greater than public flows.
Although the private sector drives more than half of global climate mitigation finance, it contributes only 1–2 percent of adaptation spending. Market barriers and high risks can make adaptation projects appear unprofitable. Gaps in regulations, climate data, standardized risk metrics, fiscal incentives and well-targeted public finance create a double bottleneck: investors cannot accurately assess risks, while countries struggle to turn their NAPs and NDCs into pipelines capable of mobilizing private capital.
The solution: The public sector as a catalyst for private capital
National governments, state-affiliated institutions, multilateral climate funds and multilateral development banks play a critical role in unlocking private capital. Many adaptation measures are public goods and will continue to require public or concessional finance. However, strategic public resources can create an enabling environment that makes revenue-generating, cost-saving and risk-reducing activities financially viable.
Governments can establish stable legal, fiscal and regulatory frameworks, including clear cost-recovery rules, tax incentives and standardized corporate climate-risk disclosures. The public sector can also fund open-access climate data, advanced weather forecasting and early warning systems.
Where policy and data are not enough, guarantees, concessional debt, first-loss facilities, blended finance and insurance can improve risk-return profiles. Scaling private investment depends on matching and sequencing the right tools with the right partners and risks.
Webinar objectives
Identify and analyze the barriers that limit private sector investment in adaptation.
Showcase the catalytic role of public finance by highlighting how public de-risking instruments (like guarantees and blended finance) can absorb risk and crowd in private capital.
Demonstrate how to match the right financial tools with specific actors, risk profiles, and adaptation needs.
Explore practical ways to accelerate pipelines by translate national priorities (NAPs/NDCs) into structured, bankable project pipelines.
Emphasize the need for strengthening enabling environments through public finance, policy, regulations, and climate data to make private investment viable.
Presentations
Unlocking Adaptation Finance: How the Public Sector Catalyzes Private Investments
Watch the recording
Speakers
Agenda
*Webinar moderator: Shovon Kibria, Regional Technical Advisor & Private Sector Engagement Specialist, UNDP
| Time | Subject | Presenter/s |
| 08:00 – 08:05 AM | Welcome and objectives | Rohini Kohli, Senior Technical Advisor, Climate Change Adaptation Policy and Planning, UNDP |
| 08:05 –08:10 AM | Keynote address | Alice de Moraes Amorim Vogas, Programs Director COP 30 Presidency |
| 08:10 –08:15 AM | Opening remarks | Alessandro Negrin, Senior Advisor, Ministry of Environment & Energy Security, Government of Italy |
| 08:15 – 08:22 AM | Presentation: Advancing adaptation: mapping costs and enabling financing | Kanmani Chockalingam, Senior Fellow and Associate Partner, McKinsey Global Institute |
| 08:22 – 08:30 AM | Presentation: Status of blended finance for climate and adaptation | Andrew Wainer, Director of Market Insights, Convergence Blended Finance |
| 08:30 – 09:10 AM | Panel discussion: Public sector as a catalyst for private sector investments in adaptation | Anderson Caputo, Connectivity, Markets & Finance Division Chief, Inter-American Development Bank Haile Mekonnen, Manager, ESG (Environmental, Social & Governance) Division at Wegagen Bank s.c, Ethiopia Jamil Wyne, Founder, Hazelwood Network Anuma Bhattarai, Senior Agriculture Extension Officer, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Environment, Government of Nepal Tamanna Rehman, Lead-Climate Resilience, Practical Action |
| 09:10 – 09:25 AM | Q&A | All speakers and panelists |
| 9:25 – 09:30 AM | Closing remarks and call to action | Joaquim Leite, Head of Climate Finance, NDC Partnership Support Unit |
Speaker bios
| Rohini Kohli, Senior Technical Advisor, Climate Change Adaptation Policy and Planning, UNDP | Rohini Kohli is a senior technical advisor on climate change adaptation policy and planning at UNDP’s Climate Hub. She provides policy advice and experience sharing upon requests from governments, development partners, and UNDP country offices. She oversees UNDP’s portfolio of National Adaptation Plans, linkages to the NDCs, and overall strategic direction on adaptation planning. She has worked for more than 20 years on sustainable human development, policy advocacy, and institutional strengthening and engagement. She works globally and has served in posts in Asia, the Middle East, and Central Europe. She is a sociologist by training. |
Alice de Moraes Amorim Vogas, Programs Director COP 30 Presidency | Alice de Moraes Amorim Vogas is Programme Director of the COP30 Presidency. Alice began her career in the financial sector as a lawyer at Icatu Holding S/A and has more than a decade of experience in international and sustainable development, working with civil society, academia and philanthropy. Before joining the COP30 team, she was Head of the Extraordinary Advisory Office for COP30 at Brazil's Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change. She was Director of Partnerships and Communications at iCS - Instituto Clima e Sociedade and Chair of the Board of the Foundations 20 Platform. She also coordinated the iCS Climate Policy and Engagement Programme, was Senior Climate Leader at WINGS, where she coordinated the global #PhilanthropyForClimate movement and spent a year as a Humboldt Chancellor Fellow working with Lisa Badum (Green Party) in the German Parliament. Alice has a degree in Law from the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ) and a masters degree in Late Development Economic Policy from the London School of Economics (LSE). |
| Alessandro Negrin, Senior Advisor, Ministry of Environment & Energy Security, Government of Italy |
Alessandro Negrin is a senior climate policy advisor and international negotiator at the Italian Ministry for the Environment and Energy Security, supporting international climate diplomacy across the G7, G20 and UNFCCC. He has served as Deputy Head of Delegation to the UNFCCC and coordinated Italy’s climate work during the G7 Italian Presidencies (2017 and 2024) and the G20 Climate Sustainability Working Group (2021). He is also Coordinator of the G7 Adaptation Accelerator Hub, launched at the G7 Summit in Venaria to support developing countries on climate change adaptation. Previously, he worked with the UN Executive Office of the Secretary-General as a Senior Advisor for the 2019 Climate Action Summit |
| Joaquim Leite, Head of Climate Finance, NDC Partnership Support Unit | Joaquim is the Head of Climate Finance at the NDC Partnership. His work focuses on supporting NDC Partnership member countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America in increasing access to climate finance to implement their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and the Sustainable Development Goals. Joaquim leads the finance team and manages the finance work of the NDC Partnership. His experience includes assignments to national and subnational Governments, the private sector, research institutions, bilateral donors, and multilateral organizations. |
| Andrew Wainer, Director of Market Insights, Convergence Blended Finance | Andrew has more than 20 years experience leading international development and development finance research to shape policy, programs, and practice. His blended finance, domestic resource mobilization, and climate finance analysis is featured in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, Devex, and The Guardian and with leading development institutions and organizations including the Center for Global Development and the World Bank.At Save the Children, Andrew led development finance research and engagement for almost a decade, generating development finance insights ranging from the country-level analyses in Kenya, to providing early understanding of multilateral initiatives such as the International Monetary Fund’s Resilience and Sustainability Trust. Andrew also provided research leadership for the organization's global development finance pillar, with a focus on impact for children. He has led engagement with ministries of finance, revenue authorities, private sector actors, and civil society organizations throughout lower-income countries. A native Californian, Andrew holds a master’s degree from the University of California, Los Angeles and is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese. |
| Kanmani Chockalingam, Senior Fellow and Associate Partner, McKinsey Global Institute | Kanmani (KC)’s research focuses on climate resilience, studying how people worldwide are impacted by climate hazards, the extent of protection today, and adaptation needs and costs in a warming world. She is a frequent speaker on these topics at leading conferences and industry forums. Her research is widely cited in the media, and she contributes to articles and op-eds in major publications such as the Financial Times, Fortune, Project Syndicate, and Harvard Business Review. She is a co-author of several recent MGI reports: Advancing Adaptation: Mapping costs from cooling to coastal defenses, Advancing adaptation: How evolving hazards could shape the agenda, Human capital at work: The value of experience, Performance through People: Transforming human capital into competitive advantage, Tough trade-offs: How time and career choices shape the gender pay gap, A microscope on small businesses: Spotting opportunities to boost productivity, America’s small businesses, India’s turning point. Her past work in India was with McKinsey’s financial services practice, where she served retail and small business banking players. KC is based in McKinsey’s Seattle office and has previously worked in Bangalore and Mumbai. She holds an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (2013), and a Bachelor of Technology degree in Civil Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (2011), where she was a gold medalist. |
| Anderson Caputo, Connectivity, Markets & Finance Division Chief, Inter-American Development Bank | Anderson Caputo Silva has been the Chief of the Connectivity, Markets and Finance (CMF) division of the IDB since July 2023. He was formerly Practice Manager for Long-Term Finance and Lead Financial Sector Specialist in the Finance, Competitiveness, and Innovation Global Practice at the World Bank, focused in the areas of capital market development and sustainable finance. Anderson served the Brazilian Treasury, among others, as Head of the Public Debt Strategic Planning Department of the Brazilian Treasury, formulating strategies in domestic and international capital markets for the overall government debt portfolio. He holds a Ph.D. degree in Finance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. |
| Haile Mekonnen, Manager, ESG (Environmental, Social & Governance) Division at Wegagen Bank s.c |
Haile Mekonnen is an ESG and sustainable finance specialist with experience in Ethiopia’s banking sector. An IFC-trained and certified ESG trainer, his expertise includes climate finance, environmental and social risk management, and sustainability reporting, with particular interest in adaptation finance for smallholder farmers and vulnerable communities. |
| Jamil Wyne, Founder, Hazelwood Network | Jamil Wyne is the founder of the Hazelwood Network and a senior advisor on climate adaptation at UNIDO. He led the Climate Tech Opportunity study at Oxford University and has worked with the World Bank, IFC, UNICEF, WWF, EDF, and national governments; he has taught at university and has a LinkedIn Learning course on climate resilience and adaptation. He is a Forbes contributor, where much of his writing focuses on climate adaptation, and his work has appeared in Stanford, Brookings, McKinsey, Bloomberg, and CNN. He was a Fulbright, New American, and Truman Fellow. |
| Anuma Bhattarai, Senior Agriculture Extension Officer Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Environment, Government of Nepal | Anuma Bhattarai has more than 16 years of government service; she has worked in various sub sectors of agricultural development, gaining a wide range of experience in policy development, implementation, program design, and farmer outreach. Her professional experience also includes promoting agricultural insurance schemes to safeguard farmers against risks, and she is currently engaged in climate adaptation planning and implementation. She is also involved in the SCALA Project (Scaling up Climate Ambition on Land Use and Agriculture) implemented in Nepal, where she facilitates project activity implementation. Her work reflects a strong commitment to food security through climate change adaptation and empowering farming communities through evidence-based extension services. |
| Tamanna Rahman, Lead-Climate Resilience, Practical Action | Tamanna leads Practical Action’s climate resilience portfolio in Bangladesh, supporting communities to prepare for floods, extreme heat, cyclonic storms, and other climate risks. With over 10 years of experience, she has worked with communities, governments, and international partners on disaster risk reduction, resilient infrastructure, locally led adaptation planning, early warning systems, climate finance, nature-based solutions, and resilience building efforts. |
| Shovon Kibria, Regional Technical Advisor & Private Sector Engagement Specialist, UNDP | Shovon Kibria is a Regional Technical Advisor and Private Sector Engagement Specialist at UNDP’s Planet Hub. He supports UNDP’s climate change adaptation portfolio, with a focus on mobilizing private sector engagement and finance for adaptation, including climate-resilient agriculture, nature-based solutions, value-chain approaches, and innovative financing mechanisms. He has over 15 years of experience working across Asia and Africa on climate finance, adaptation programming, social enterprise, and business development. Shovon holds a Master’s degree in Development Administration and Planning from University College London and Bachelor’s degrees in Economics and Philosophy from Brown University. |