Scarcity of finances key barrier to scaling up climate adaptation Top Lancet Countdown official

New Delhi, Nov 5 (PTI) Adaptation has not kept pace with the rapidly heating planet, and scarcity of financial resources remains one of the key barriers to scaling it up, a top official of the Lancet Countdown has said.

    Speaking to PTI Videos on the 10th indicator report on health and climate Change, Lancet Countdown’s Executive Director Marina Romanello highlighted that while there have been gains in health systems and in adaptation since the Paris Agreement came into force, progress has fallen short.

    Adaptation refers to the steps taken to cope with a changing climate, both its current effects and those still to come, by cutting down on losses and making use of emerging possibilities.

    “The latest report has found increasing and accelerating impacts of climate change across multiple dimensions. One of the key barriers to adaptation at scale is scarcity of financial resources. This is where global climate finance is falling short in providing what the countries need to protect people’s health and save lives,” Romanello told PTI.

    She noted that despite efforts and some progress, the impacts continue to grow, and as a result, the burden of disease associated with climate change is rising globally.

    According to the report, India ranked among the top countries with the highest heatwave exposure for both vulnerable age groups – infants and older adults – along with China, the US and Russia.

    Globally, the total number of heatwave days decreased from 2024’s historical high of 15.3 billion person-days for older adults and 2.3 billion person-days for infants.

    The year 2025 was the second highest on record for heatwave exposure for both vulnerable groups combined, as older adults were exposed to 10.8 billion person-days of heatwaves, while infants experienced 1.1 billion person-days, the report said.

    “No country will be safe from the health impacts of climate change until every country is safe. Even in high-income countries with abundant resources, sharing knowledge and supporting countries with fewer resources to catch up and avoid rapidly growing impacts is to everyone’s benefit,” the top Lancet Countdown official said.

    Cautioning that the less countries adapt, the greater the losses and damages they will face, Romanello stressed that what is not spent on adaptation now, which is cost-effective and yields huge returns on investment, will have to be paid later at a much higher cost in losses and damages, and in lives lost.

    When asked what would change if countries formally declared climate change a global health emergency, as the report recommends, she said the world needs to change how it responds, flagging that the current approach has not worked.

    “In the 10 years since the Paris Agreement entered into force, the response has fallen grossly short. Business as usual is not working. The urgency is growing. The health impacts of climate change are accelerating, and an unprecedented El Nino is taking shape at the same time,” Romanello told PTI.

    Climate emergencies are arriving faster, and the world can no longer answer them one at a time, making the case for a response on two fronts, she added.

    Referring to the report, Romanello called for using the existing UN and WHO mechanisms, such as declaring a public health emergency of international concern, to respond quickly to sudden climate emergencies.

    “In parallel, the WHO member states should build a new system to tackle climate change as a continuing global emergency, with sustained resources, better coordination, stronger health systems and emission cuts.”

    Referring to a recent ‘Limiting Overshoot’ report by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) that suggests global temperature rise is set to cross the 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold above pre-industrial levels within the next few years, she pointed to the need for doubling down on mitigation.

    “Fossil fuels are still not mentioned in any COP documents, even though they are by and large driving the climate crisis that is claiming lives every day. We need to transition away from fossil fuels, as per previous UNFCCC agreements, with robust commitments and action plans and finance allocated to them,” Romanello told PTI.

    According to the latest Lancet Countdown report, developing countries are significantly under-reporting their specific health adaptation finance needs due to a lack of localised domestic data and costed national plans.

    The UNEP has warned that developing nations actually require up to USD 305 billion annually by 2035 for total climate adaptation, but current public international flows provide just a fraction of this, leaving an enormous, life-threatening resource deficit.

    “We are grossly falling behind, and financial constraints are by and large the biggest barrier to adaptation. We need to increase concessional and grant-based finance so that resources reach the most affected countries without adding interest repayments, which are choking national economies and diverting resources from the budgets needed for local adaptation and mitigation plans,” she said.

    Romanello stressed that climate change is not going away, and even with the best efforts, there is a need to increase adaptation, which requires targets, goals, and financial and technical support.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)