Countries need more adaptation finance. But mobilizing investment at scale also requires stronger coordination across planning, finance and implementation – here's why.
As climate change accelerates, so too does the need for financing and investment in adaptation. Developing countries are estimated to require hundreds of billions of dollars each year to build resilience to rising temperatures, extreme weather, water insecurity and other growing climate risks.
Different adaptation measures require different types of finance. While some adaptation measures can generate financial returns and attract private investment; others save lives, protect ecosystems and provide essential public services, but without generating returns that investors can readily capture.
International public finance for adaptation falls far short of what is needed. Closing the gap will require mobilizing significantly more finance from international public sources and domestic public budgets, multilateral development banks and private investors, including through blended finance mechanisms.
Securing more finance, however, is only part of the challenge. Another major hurdle is coordinating the diverse actors and processes involved. This explainer explores why fragmentation matters, how countries are addressing it, and the emerging approaches that are helping to connect planning, investment and implementation.
Why is adaptation finance often described as "fragmented"?
When people talk about fragmentation in adaptation finance, they are not simply referring to a disconnect between the many organizations and funding sources involved. Rather, they are describing a wider ecosystem in which the different parts do not always work together effectively: from national planning and public budgeting to technical assistance, project preparation and financing mechanisms.
This is partly because adaptation spans many sectors and draws on a range of funding sources. Public, private and philanthropic funders have different priorities, processes and requirements, while adaptation needs can span sectors from agriculture and water to infrastructure and health. Reducing flood risk, for example, may require investment in infrastructure, ecosystems and disaster risk management, drawing on several funding sources and engaging many institutions.
Many countries have clearly set out their adaptation priorities in their National Adaptation Plan (NAP), climate strategies and sector plans. But these priorities are often not costed, and weakly connected to public budgets and pipelines of well-prepared, finance-ready investments. Moreover, systemic issues such as green taxonomies with insufficient adaptation content, and lack of agreed asset classes adjusted to adaptation, hold back financiers and investors.
Governments, development partners and financiers may conduct separate climate-risk assessments, deliver technical assistance through different programmes, and prepare projects independently. They may also use different criteria to define an investment pipeline or decide when a priority is sufficiently developed – or “bankable” – to attract finance.
As a result, support may be useful at each stage but not add up to a coherent pathway from national priorities to investment. Limited capacity for project preparation, particularly at the subnational level, can further slow progress. Together, these disconnects can duplicate effort, leave financing opportunities untapped and limit the supply of investment-ready projects that can attract public and private finance at scale.
Private finance currently accounts for only a small fraction of global adaptation finance. This underscores the need for more investment and stronger coordination to link national priorities to clear pipelines of well-prepared investments and give investors greater confidence to engage.
Why does fragmentation make it harder to deliver climate adaptation?
Effective climate adaptation depends on many actors working towards a shared long-term goal. When planning, finance and technical support are not sufficiently coordinated, countries can struggle to turn adaptation priorities into action.
Fragmentation creates practical barriers at several stages. Navigating multiple funding sources, each with its own application and reporting processes, can be costly. Government agencies often spend considerable time meeting different donor requirements, leaving less capacity for project preparation and implementation.
Development partners may unknowingly duplicate efforts in some areas while leaving important gaps in others. This can result in disconnected projects that do not contribute to broader national resilience objectives.
Private sector actors and financiers are often brought in too late to shape projects around market realities, identify viable financing models and build a shared understanding of what makes adaptation projects attractive to investors and ready for finance.
The investment case can also be harder to establish for some interventions than others. In infrastructure and other areas where avoided losses and economic benefits can be more readily quantified it may be relatively straightforward to make the case. Interventions that deliver broader ecosystem or public-good benefits can be harder to value or monetize. This can make it more difficult to match them with appropriate sources of finance, and they may continue to depend on public, concessional and grant-based support.
These challenges make it more difficult to develop coherent, long-term pipelines of investment-ready projects that can attract public and private finance at scale. Instead of a coordinated programme of priority investments, countries may be left with a collection of individual projects competing for support.
Aligning adaptation investments with NAPs, Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and broader national development priorities can establish a clearer strategic direction and a more coherent investment pipeline, while giving public and private financiers a stronger basis for engagement.
What can be done to make adaptation finance more coordinated?
Governments and development partners are increasingly seeking to complement individual projects with country-led, programmatic approaches that align finance with national priorities. These approaches connect adaptation investments with countries’ NAPs, NDCs and broader development strategies, giving governments, development partners, development finance institutions and private investors a shared direction for action.
A key part of this shift is investment readiness: moving beyond preparing and costing individual projects to developing costed investment packages and pipelines that are anchored in national adaptation priorities, aligned with public budgets and investment plans, and linked to appropriate financing vehicles and sources.
This also requires bringing government agencies, technical partners, financiers and the private sector together earlier in the process to co-create investment propositions, test their feasibility and identify the mix of public, private and blended finance needed to move them towards implementation.
Two approaches gaining attention are Adaptation Investment Plans, which help translate national adaptation priorities into investment-ready portfolios and country Platforms, which bring governments financiers and development partners together around those priorities. Together, they can create a more coordinated pathway from planning to implementation, helping countries to move beyond isolated projects towards more strategic, long-term adaptation investment.
What are Country Platforms, and how can they help?
Some countries have established Country Platforms to bring government institutions, development partners, development finance institutions and other actors together around a shared set of national priorities and investment needs. They are one of several country-led coordination approaches, alongside NAP working groups, sectoral coordination structures and other national mechanisms. Where established, they can build on these arrangements rather than creating parallel structures.
Their form varies by country, but their purpose is to strengthen country leadership by linking national development and climate priorities with investment planning and finance, while aligning external support behind those priorities. They can give governments a forum through which to engage climate funds, development finance institutions, private investors and technical organizations to develop a shared understanding of where investment is needed, and identify how different sources of support can contribute.
Experience is still emerging, but country examples illustrate how these approaches can work in practice.
In Bangladesh, the country-led Bangladesh Climate Development Partnership brings government institutions and development partners together around climate and development priorities, helping to mobilize finance and develop a coordinated pipeline of adaptation and mitigation investments.
Egypt’s Country Platform for the Nexus of Water, Food and Energy (NWFE) Program is aligning finance and project preparation across its water, food and energy pillars. Recently, In August 2026, the national cabinet approved a draft presidential decree for two African Development Bank (AfDB) grants to support preparation of a renewable-energy-powered desalination project under NWFE’s water pillar. The plants are expected to be developed through public-private partnerships and to add 525,000 cubic metres of water per day across four governorates, helping increase Egypt's water security and freshwater supply.
These examples suggest that when anchored in national institutions and priorities, Country Platforms and similar coordination mechanisms can help reduce fragmentation, identify gaps and better coordinate complementary support, connecting adaptation priorities more systematically to public and private financing opportunities.
What role do National Adaptation Plans and Adaptation Investment Plans play?
NAPs provide the strategic foundation for climate adaptation, by helping countries identify climate risks, assess vulnerabilities and set out the actions needed to strengthen resilience over the coming years. Identifying priorities, however, is only the first step. Turning them into action requires clear financing pathways and, where appropriate, investment-ready propositions – work that calls for a different set of tools.
This is where Adaptation Investment Plans (AIPs) can play an important role. Building on priorities set out in NAPs – and often in NDCs and broader development strategies – AIPs translate adaptation ambitions into costed, prioritized investment portfolios. They support decisions on which interventions to advance, estimate financing needs and present clearer investment propositions to public and private financiers.
Where AIPs are linked to national public finance processes, they can also help connect adaptation planning to budgeting and investment decisions. This reduces the risk that climate priorities remain disconnected from fiscal planning and creates a stronger foundation for coordinated, programmatic investment.
By developing a pipeline of finance-ready investments, AIPs help governments engage more effectively with development partners, climate funds, development finance institutions and private investors, helping accelerate progress from planning to implementation.
The Asian Development Bank's Climate Adaptation Investment Planning programme offers examples of sector- and area-focused planning. From 2022 to 2025, it worked with governments in Armenia, Bhutan, Cambodia, Indonesia, Mongolia and Nepal to develop adaptation investment packages.
ADB’s review reports early gains: in Bhutan, for example, the preparation of water-sector packages has strengthened collaboration among ministries. Bhutan’s NAP, developed with support from UNDP and the Green Climate Fund, has provided an important foundation for this work. Based on the NAP, the Government has since prepared a sectoral adaptation investment plan for water in collaboration with ADB.
Bahrain offers a national, cross-sectoral example. Its National Adaptation Investment Plan translates adaptation actions across four sectors – water resources; agriculture and food production; ecosystem services and biodiversity; and urban development – into a portfolio of projects and examines financing options. By 2024, the process had produced 14 project concept notes. Bahrain’s 2025 NDC notes that further work is needed to develop them into viable proposals and proceed with implementation.
How is the Adaptation Accelerator Hub supporting this shift?
The G7 Adaptation Accelerator Hub (AAH), led by the Government of Italy, with UNDP as partner agency, helps countries translate priorities in their NAPs, NDCs and development strategies into investment-ready plans and projects. It works through existing national systems, aligning partners and providing targeted support.
Support is tailored to each country. Depending on the country context, it may help develop Adaptation Investment Plans, strengthen investment readiness and bring together government ministries, development partners, climate funds, development finance institutions, private investors and technical organizations around a shared pipeline of priority adaptation investments.
An important element of this approach is co-creation: engaging government, technical partners and potential financiers earlier in the process to develop a shared understanding of investment needs and jointly shape propositions that address national priorities and financing requirements.
By identifying gaps in project preparation, technical support and financing, the Hub can help mobilize targeted expertise in areas such as feasibility studies, financial structuring, governance and investor engagement, while connecting countries to appropriate financing partners.
In Ethiopia, the Hub is helping turn national adaptation priorities into a structured pipeline of investment opportunities through co-creation, progressively developing them towards investment readiness and aligning them with the country's emerging Climate Finance Strategy. Building on Ethiopia's existing Climate Resilient Green Economy architecture, the country-led process brings together public and private finance actors to strengthen project preparation, reduce duplication and connect priority investments with technical assistance and potential financiers.
In Cambodia, the Hub is taking a targeted, investment-focused approach to help unlock financing for priority adaptation solutions, including early warning systems and nature-based solutions. Rather than developing a new planning framework, AAH support builds on existing national and partner initiatives and focuses on the critical steps between identifying a priority and developing a financeable investment. By helping to clarify the investment case for priority interventions and connect them with potential sources of finance, the Hub aims to demonstrate how relatively small amounts of upstream technical assistance can help mobilize adaptation investment at a much larger scale.
In Ghana, the entry point is different. The Hub is exploring how to scale existing climate and disaster risk financing solutions, including flood insurance, rather than creating entirely new instruments. AAH support is focused on identifying institutional, financial and technical barriers to scale; strengthening the use of risk information; and bringing together government, insurers, development partners and potential financing partners around practical pathways for expansion. This illustrates another catalytic role for the Hub: helping promising solutions move beyond pilots or fragmented initiatives by addressing those barriers and connecting them with the public and private finance needed for wider deployment.
Similar approaches are being advanced in other partner countries, reflecting a broader shift towards more coordinated, country-led adaptation finance that can accelerate implementation and deliver greater impact.
Connecting priorities, finance and action
As adaptation needs grow and the finance gap widens, accelerating implementation will require additional resources and stronger coordination across planning, finance and delivery.
Adaptation Investment Plans and Country Platforms, supported by the Adaptation Accelerator Hub, can help connect these efforts and move country-led priorities towards implementation.
Learn more at adaptation-undp.org/adaptationacceleratorhub
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