[NDC Partnership] New Guidance Helps Countries Plan and Mobilize Finance for Adaptation

3 November 2025 — The Asian Development Bank (ADB), Commonwealth Secretariat, Adaptation Fund and NDC Partnership Support Unit launched new guidance today to help countries mobilize finance for climate adaptation.

With countries now submitting third-round Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs 3.0) under the Paris Agreement, countries will need to quickly mobilize public and private finance to implement their adaptation commitments.

As climate impacts intensify, implementing adaptation measures is an increasingly urgent priority, particularly for developing countries on the frontlines of the climate crisis. While adaptation finance more than doubled between 2018 and 2022, reaching roughly USD 76 billion, developing countries will require nearly USD 400 billion per year in adaptation financing up to 2030. Yet major barriers — including limited private-sector investment, fragmented strategies and gaps in government capacity — remain, impeding the flow of adaptation finance to the countries where it’s needed most.

To help address these barriers, the new “Adaptation Financing Supplement” to the Climate Investment Planning and Mobilization Framework (CIPMF) online tool guides countries on how best to identify, prioritize and mobilize adaptation finance. By developing investment plans supported by financing strategies, institutional mechanisms and bankable projects, the supplement provides point-by-point guidance on:

1. Adaptation investment planning processes

2. Identifying investment opportunities and solutions that are effective, scalable and replicable

3. Strategies for building human capacity for adaptation investment planning and finance mobilization

Through each stage, the Adaptation Financing Supplement supports countries to mainstream and integrate adaptation priorities into national development strategies and plans, leveraging the institutional expertise of each contributing author. From scaling finance, investment planning and institutional readiness, the ADB, the Adaptation Fund and Commonwealth Secretariat together are supporting countries to turn adaptation priorities into on-the-ground action.

NDC Partnership Global Director Pablo Vieira: “As developing countries submit their NDCs 3.0, adaptation is a key priority. Through this guidance and our global network of partners, the NDC Partnership is ensuring countries have the support they need to shift from planning to implementation, backed by the finance needed to deliver results.”

Asian Development Bank, Director, Climate Change, Arghya Sinha Roy: “An investment-focused approach is critical to scale up financial flows for adaptation and resilience. This guidance is based on the lessons learned from the implementation of ADB’s Climate Adaptation Investment Planning Program, which is supporting developing countries in the Asia Pacific to identify priority investment packages that are embedded in countries’ fiscal frameworks, thereby securing and sustaining programmatic financing for implementation.”

Commonwealth Secretariat, Director of Climate Change and Oceans, Suresh Yadav: “Across the Commonwealth, countries are demonstrating strong ambition in their NDCs 3.0, but delivering them requires finance at scale and speed, which we are supporting through the Commonwealth Climate Finance Access Hub. This new supplement is another step in ensuring that adaptation priorities translate into real resilience, especially for the most vulnerable.”

Mr. Mikko Ollikainen, Head of the Adaptation Fund: “The Adaptation Fund helps bridge the gap between adaptation planning and implementation through catalytic grant-based finance that empowers countries and communities to deliver locally led, innovative, and scalable adaptation solutions. We are pleased to contribute to this publication by sharing best practices drawn from the Fund’s experience in addressing the unique challenges of translating adaptation plans into action.”

In addition to the partners mentioned above, the Adaptation Financing Supplement was developed with the valuable support of the Organisation for Economic Co‑operation and Development (OECD), the NAP Global Network, hosted by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Explore the full Adaptation Financing Supplement and access the CIPMF online tool.

More About the CIPMF Online Tool

In response to country demand for finance support, the NDC Partnership and Green Climate Fund (GCF) launched a working draft of the CIPMF in 2023 at COP28 in Dubai with input from a range of actors, including private and public institutions and country representatives. Building on this guidance, the CIPMF online tool is a first-of-its-kind resource that outlines six key stages across the climate investment planning and resource mobilization process.

Allowing flexible user-entry points for countries at different stages of the finance planning process, the CIPMF enables countries to identify climate finance needs and gaps, develop finance strategies and project plans and map support providers and finance opportunities — tailored to their national contexts.

Read the original press release here.