Global Center on Adaptation Calls for a Climate Adaptation Breakthrough at COP30
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otterdam, Netherlands, 3 November 2025 — The Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) today called on world leaders to deliver a climate adaptation breakthrough at COP30 in Belém, Brazil, describing the summit as a defining test of global leadership in the era of climate extremes.
With the world on track to overshoot the 1.5°C temperature limit, GCA warned that adaptation can no longer be treated as a secondary pillar of climate action. It must instead become the bridge between today’s warming world and tomorrow’s sustainable one.
“Adaptation is not a concession to failure—it is a testament to courage,” said Ban Ki-moon, Honorary Chair of the Global Center on Adaptation and eighth Secretary-General of the United Nations. “It is the practical expression of solidarity in a warming world. History will not judge us by the promises we make but by the lives we save.”
A Defining Moment for Adaptation
COP30, taking place in the heart of the Amazon, is expected to be the world’s first “Adaptation COP.” Its President-Designate, Ambassador André Aranha Corrêa do Lago, has called for a major inflection on adaptation, recognizing that without accelerated resilience-building, climate change will continue to multiply poverty and inequality.
The Global Center on Adaptation underlined that despite growing recognition of the need for adaptation, less than 15 cents of every climate dollar currently goes to adaptation. Developing nations, particularly the Least Developed Countries, have called for a tripling of adaptation finance by 2030, which GCA says must become the benchmark for success in Belém.
“Adaptation finance is not an act of generosity—it is an act of enlightened self-interest,” said Professor Patrick V. Verkooijen, President and CEO of the Global Center on Adaptation. “No economy can thrive in a world of failing states, broken food systems, and displaced populations. Investing in resilience protects lives, livelihoods and global stability.”
Building a New Financial Architecture
To meet this ambition, GCA is calling for a new financial architecture that mobilizes both public and private capital at scale. This includes:
- Transforming billions into trillions through blended finance, guarantees, and insurance mechanisms that make adaptation projects bankable;
- Aligning multilateral development banks and national climate funds with locally led adaptation priorities; and
- Embedding adaptation into all national plans, transparency frameworks and global financial systems.
Through initiatives such as the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program (AAAP), adaptation finance has been shown to deliver exceptional returns. Every dollar invested in resilience generates more than ten dollars in economic benefits within a decade.
The Global Center on Adaptation highlighted that innovation is already reshaping the resilience agenda. Drought-tolerant crops developed by CGIAR scientists have increased yields for smallholder farmers by up to 30 percent. In Bangladesh, cyclone shelters have reduced deaths from major storms by 90 percent in two decades. Across the Caribbean, coral-based coastal defences are protecting communities while restoring ecosystems.
But adaptation, GCA emphasized, is not only about technology—it is about people. Empowering youth, strengthening health systems, and supporting women farmers with access to finance and knowledge are essential to building societies that can thrive in a changing climate.
“Adaptation begins and ends with people,” said Verkooijen. “When communities are empowered to design and deliver their own solutions, we move from vulnerability to vitality.”
From Rio to Belém: Turning Vision into Action
Thirty-three years after the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, COP30 offers the world a historic opportunity to fulfil that original promise of sustainable development. GCA urged leaders to make Belém the summit where ambition becomes implementation—where financial commitments are matched by transformative partnerships and measurable outcomes.
Success in Belém will depend on progress across three critical fronts:
1. Tripling Adaptation Finance by 2030
Developing countries have made clear that tripling adaptation finance—relative to 2022 levels—is essential to protect lives and livelihoods. Achieving this goal will require rebalancing global climate finance, which remains overwhelmingly skewed toward mitigation. GCA calls on multilateral development banks, bilateral donors, and private investors to:
- Integrate adaptation into all development and infrastructure investments;
- Establish guarantee facilities and insurance schemes to de-risk private investment; and
- Develop new performance-based instruments that reward verified resilience outcomes.
Tripling finance is not just a numerical target—it is the scale required to ensure every country has a minimum to protect its people from climate shocks.
2. Embedding Adaptation Across Every Negotiating Track
Adaptation must guide every dimension of COP30’s outcome—from national plans to finance, transparency, and the new climate goal. Countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) should become the operational blueprints for resilience, fully costed, implemented and tracked.
This requires clear indicators, shared reporting standards, and mechanisms that link adaptation to development priorities such as food security, health and education. By embedding adaptation in all areas of negotiation, leaders can ensure that resilience becomes a defining measure of success across the Paris Agreement.
3. Scaling Innovation and Inclusion as Catalysts for Resilient Development
To unlock the full potential of adaptation, innovation and inclusion must drive the global agenda. From AI-based climate risk analytics to nature-based infrastructure, new technologies are revolutionizing resilience planning and delivery. But these innovations must reach the communities that need them most.
GCA calls for a global effort to:
- Invest in climate innovation ecosystems that link researchers, entrepreneurs and financiers;
- Expand access to adaptation technologies through increased South–North, South-South cooperation; and
- Prioritize youth and women as leaders of change, embedding equity and inclusion into the core of climate action.
“COP30 must not be another moment of aspiration, but of acceleration,” said Verkooijen. “This is the summit where adaptation becomes synonymous with development—and where solidarity becomes the foundation of global stability.”
Notes to Editors
About the Global Center on Adaptation
The Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) is an international organization that promotes adaptation to the impacts of climate change. It works to climate-proof development by instigating policy reforms and influencing investments made by international financial institutions and the private sector. The goal is to bring climate adaptation to the forefront of the global fight against climate change and ensure that it remains prominent. Founded in 2018, GCA is the first international organization to maintain dual headquarters in both the Global North in Rotterdam and in the Global South in Nairobi – underscoring the equal partnership between regions and the conviction that climate adaptation solutions must be co-designed and co-owned. Its regional hubs in Abidjan, Dhaka and Beijing, leverage local expertise to pilot and scale context-specific approaches. Together, these centers ensure a continuous, two-way exchange of knowledge and best practices that empower communities and drive resilient and inclusive growth worldwide.
