Adaptation finance is central to climate action, yet significant challenges remain in increasing the volume of finance and ensuring that it reaches the people and places that need it most. Small island developing states (SIDS) and least developed countries (LDCs) are among the world’s most vulnerable nations. However, they not only struggle to secure sufficient financing to address the unavoidable impacts of climate change but also face barriers in accessing high-quality, equitable finance that aligns with their self-determined needs and priorities. Addressing these challenges requires both a substantial scale-up of adaptation finance and structural reforms to the global financial architecture to ensure that finance is long term, predictable and equitable, and informed by and implemented by local actors. Developed countries, including the G20, must take greater responsibility in ensuring this. Despite high-level pledges, systemic barriers and misaligned priorities in current funding mechanisms continue to impede progress.

Drawing on an evidence review of seven case studies on ‘Good practices in accessing and delivering adaptation finance to support SIDS and LDCs’ published by the Climate and Development Ministerial, this brief examines opportunities and challenges in accessing and delivering adaptation finance. It also highlights promising approaches and distils key lessons learned. Core themes include adopting programmatic financing to enhance country ownership, accelerating efforts to mobilise innovative finance from diverse sources – including the private sector – and addressing access and equity challenges by devolving funds to the local level. The brief also captures both fund provider and recipient perspectives – an often-missing but essential view of what is and is not working across the full finance pipeline.