T he Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, DanChurchAid, the Confederation of Danish Industry, and the Global Center on Adaptation convened Danish partners for a roundtable dialogue to present the business case for adaptation investments and inspire the private sector in Denmark to invest in adaptation in the countries most vulnerable to climate change.

Despite increasing costs associated with delayed action, climate adaptation faces a serious and urgent shortfall in funding, particularly in the most vulnerable countries. For example, new analysis from GCA on Africa in its State and Trends in Adaptation 2022 Report suggests that current annual spending on adaptation across all of the continent is $11.4 billion. This amount falls far short of the actual adaptation needs, which require additional funding of at least $41.3 billion each year.
 
To incentivize a wide range of potential actors, it is necessary to build an enabling environment for adaptation investment and deploy innovative instruments to unlock finance at scale towards adaptation, such as blended finance. Given the scale of the challenge, successful adaptation and resilience efforts will need the meaningful engagement of the private sector.