International funding to support urban adaptation to climate change

Recent estimates of the costs of adaptation to climate change in low-and middle-income countries are in the range of tens of billions of dollars per annum. The costs of adaptation in cities will account for a significant proportion of this average largely because of the expense required to adapt (or, in the case of many low- and middle-income countries, build new and resilient) infrastructure and services for densely populated areas. This paper discusses existing international funding to support adaptation needs (primarily through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and official development assistance (ODA)), the serious shortfall in these funds, and opportunities for meeting the gap in funding. It pays particular attention to channelling funding to the most vulnerable urban stakeholders, taking into account the political and institutional constraints to the adaptive capacity of these groups.