## Poor and Vulnerable Countries Need Support to Adapt to Climate Change

_IMF Blog, March 23, 2022_

## Source details

**Canonical URL:** [Poor and Vulnerable Countries Need Support to Adapt to Climate Change](https://www.imf.org/en/blogs/articles/2022/03/23/blog032322-poor-and-vulnerable-countris-need-support-to-adapt-to-climate-change)

## Other formats

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## Bibliographic details
- Authors: Kristalina Georgieva, Vitor Gaspar, Ceyla Pazarbasioglu
- Published: March 23, 2022

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### Main findings: risks, scope, and rationale for support
- The poorest countries face the greatest risks from climate change and require international support to finance adaptation.
- All countries, rich and poor, must adapt to climate change; adaptation should address risks from climate change and extreme weather, for example by safeguarding agriculture, managing the impact of rising seas, and making infrastructure more resilient.
- The benefits of adaptation depend on specific factors such as how well-adapted a country is to its current climate, but well-crafted policies can produce large returns.
- Sub-Saharan Africa experiences one-third of the world’s droughts and is particularly vulnerable to rising temperatures and extreme weather because of its dependence on rain-fed agriculture.
- A single drought can lower an African country’s medium-term economic growth potential by 1 percentage point.
- Some country-level adaptation successes:
  - In Ethiopia, some farmers’ yields rose by up to 40 percent with the development of varieties of wheat that were resistant to rust.
  - In Ghana, cocoa farmers made crops more resistant to drought with improved seed and irrigation and by planting trees to shade crops from the sun.
- Climate adaptation does not replace mitigation; without strong mitigation, stabilizing global temperature will be impossible and adaptation would become impossibly expensive.

### Cost estimates and distributional challenges
- IMF and other research suggests public adaptation costs will reach around 0.25 percent of global gross domestic product per year in coming decades.
- Annual needs exceed 1 percent of GDP in about 50 low-income and developing economies for the next 10 years.
- Costs can be even larger for small, island nations exposed to tropical cyclones and rising seas, up to 20 percent of GDP.
- Countries most in need typically lack financing and institutional capacity to implement adaptation programs and often face other pressing development needs.

### Policy implications and recommendations
- Invest in resilient growth with adaptation fully integrated with other sustainable development goals.
- International community actions:
  - Provide financial support to poor and vulnerable countries.
  - Develop institutional capacity in recipient countries.
  - Ensure adaptation support supplements existing aid, with streamlined conditionality commensurate with the country’s institutional capacity.
  - Reduce lengthy and complex requirements that hinder direct access to international climate funds (example: Pacific Island countries).
- Up-front investment in protection can be less expensive for development partners than humanitarian relief and reconstruction after disasters.
- Continue strong global mitigation efforts because adaptation costs would become impossibly expensive without stabilizing global temperature.

### IMF actions and support modalities
- The IMF released three reports covering climate adaptation and fiscal policy, macro-fiscal implications, and mainstreaming adaptation into fiscal planning.
- The reports supplement and support work by the World Bank, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and other international organizations, and build on existing IMF work.
- IMF operational and analytical support includes:
  - Analysis of regional and country challenges of adapting to climate change in annual Article IV consultations and cross-country studies (examples noted for Maldives, Republic of Congo, Dominica, sub-Saharan Africa, the Western Hemisphere, and Asia and the Pacific).
  - Capacity development support that now includes climate macroeconomic assessment programs, climate-focused public investment management assessments, and green public financial management.
  - Development of financing solutions with member nations and partners, such as the proposed Resilience and Sustainability Trust, to channel financial resources from countries with strong external positions into affordable long-term financing for vulnerable countries.
- Financing support aims to help recipients address structural challenges such as climate change through policy reforms to foster balance of payments stability.

_Article by Kristalina Georgieva, Vitor Gaspar and Ceyla Pazarbasioglu — March 23, 2022_

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## Content in this bundle

- **1domea2019001**
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- **Climate-Sensitive Management of Public Finances—"Green PFM”; August 11, 2021**
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## References

- [عربي](https://www.imf.org/ar/News/Articles/2022/03/23/blog032322-poor-and-vulnerable-countris-need-support-to-adapt-to-climate-change)
- [日本語](https://www.imf.org/ja/News/Articles/2022/03/23/blog032322-poor-and-vulnerable-countris-need-support-to-adapt-to-climate-change)
- [Português](https://www.imf.org/pt/News/Articles/2022/03/23/blog032322-poor-and-vulnerable-countris-need-support-to-adapt-to-climate-change)
- [climate change](https://www.imf.org/en/Topics/climate-change)
- [climate adaptation and fiscal policy](https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/staff-climate-notes/Issues/2022/03/10/Economic-Principles-for-Integrating-Adaptation-to-Climate-Change-into-Fiscal-Policy-464314)
- [macro-fiscal implications](https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/staff-climate-notes/Issues/2022/03/16/Macro-Fiscal-Implications-of-Adaptation-to-Climate-Change-512769)
- [bringing climate adaptation into the mainstream](https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/staff-climate-notes/Issues/2022/03/16/Planning-and-Mainstreaming-Adaptation-to-Climate-Change-in-Fiscal-Policy-512776)
- [Ethiopia](https://www.elibrary.imf.org/view/books/086/28915-9781513536835-en/ch02.xml)
- [adaptation](https://www.imf.org/Publications/fandd/issues/2021/09/climate-change-what-is-mitigation-and-adaptation-behsudi-basics)
- [small, island nations](https://www.imf.org/Publications/fandd/issues/2021/09/maldives-climate-change-aminath-shauna-trenches)
- [https://www.imf.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Climate-Blog-Chart-v2.jpg](https://www.imf.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Climate-Blog-Chart-v2.jpg)
- [Maldives](https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2021/04/23/Enhancing-Resilience-to-Climate-Change-in-the-Maldives-50293)
- [Republic of Congo](https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/CR/Issues/2021/10/05/Republic-of-Congo-Selected-Issues-482025)
- [Resilience and Sustainability Trust](https://blogs.imf.org/2022/01/20/a-new-trust-to-help-countries-build-resilience-and-sustainability/)

_Source: https://www.imf.org/en/blogs/articles/2022/03/23/blog032322-poor-and-vulnerable-countris-need-support-to-adapt-to-climate-change_