Climate adaptation failure the next debt crisis for Global South

AS DEADLY storms ripped through the Caribbean, a new UN report delivered a sobering warning: the world is failing to prepare for the climate it has already created.

- JAWAD KHALID

BRAZIL'S President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, left, greets UN Secretary-General António Guterres during the General Plenary of Leaders in the framework of the COP30 UN Climate Change Conference in Belem, Para State, Brazil, on November 6.

(AFP)

The UN Environment Programme's Adaptation Gap Report 2025, aptly titled Running on Empty, finds that developing nations will need between $310 billion (RS.2trillion) and $365bn annually by 2035 to cope with intensifying climate impacts.

Yet, international public finance for adaptation fell to just $26bn in 2023, down from $28bn the previous year. The result: only one-twelfth of what’s needed is being delivered.

This gap is not an abstract number. It’s visible in the wreckage of homes, farms and economies across our region. Last month, Hurricane Melissa, the strongest storm to hit Jamaica, tore through the Caribbean, leaving destruction equivalent to nearly 30% of the island’s GDP.

With at least 75 lives lost and damages exceeding $50bn, Melissa is not just another storm — it is a case study in the cost of global inaction.

A rapid attribution study found that climate change made Melissa four times more likely and increased its wind speeds by 7%, raising damages by around 12%. For Haiti, Jamaica and other small island developing states (SIDS), such storms bring unbearable losses, eroding livelihoods, tourism revenues and vital infrastructure. These countries contribute the least to global emissions yet bear the highest costs.