Confronting the Adaptation Finance Gap: A Systems Approach

Organizer: Genevieve Mortimer
Format: Onsite-Online, Afternoon

Abstract:
Confronting the Adaptation Finance Gap: What is a systemic approach and why is it the way forward? The Adaptation Finance Gap is real and increasing. Although governments and the finance sector desire to create more resilient regions and cities, there is massive under-investment in adaptation. In this workshop, participants will gain a deeper understanding of why this gap is so intransigent and use this knowledge as a foundation for a strategic discussion on how to close it. This workshop shares the insights from a 2-year, multi-disciplinary project that aimed to demonstrate how private finance could securely and profitably be applied to climate change adaptation. Funders (eg insurance and investment agencies) were willing, and many areas of need were identified. Nonetheless, the project failed to achieve its aim. But it succeeded in revealing the need for a completely new approach to adaptation investment. If you are involved in adaptation or seek to push other complex sustainability transitions, I urge you to learn from our struggles. We have synthesised a fundamentally different, creative and far-reaching approach to adaptation finance. Read more here: https://climate-kic.org.au/2020/11/23/new-report-surfaces-fundamental-impasse-in-climate-adaptation-finance-gap/ Join this workshop to take an experiential approach to discovering a new financial investment paradigm that can close the adaptation finance gap and facilitate genuine sustainable, resilient transition.

Themes: Integrated Action for the SDGs, Knowledge-to-Action