A significant increase in investment in climate change adaptation is needed to build resilience to the current and future impacts of climate change. There is a strong economic case for doing so, particularly given that investments in adaptation can deliver multiple benefits. For example, green roofs can reduce energy costs, reduce stormwater runoff and contribute to biodiversity. Similarly, integrating climate-resilience into infrastructure design can reduce maintenance costs and increase reliability, while also reducing losses if an extreme event occurs.
Governments have a key role in unlocking this potential by putting in place a policy framework that provides the right signals to encourage investment in adaptation. Achieving this will require enhanced coherence and coordination between all parts of government. Climate adaptation is usually the responsibility of environment ministries, but critical policies for influencing investment in adaptation are the responsibility of finance and other sectoral ministries. Improving coordination and addressing policy misalignments and gaps can encourage investment in adaptation.
The Climate Adaptation Investment Framework has been developed to assist governments in creating a conducive policy enabling environment for investment in adaptation. It has been developed as a collaboration between the OECD’S Environment Policy and Investment Committees. Building on the OECD’s Policy Framework for Investment (PFI) and FDI Qualities Policy Toolkit, it identifies six key policy areas (“building blocks”) for increasing investment in climate change adaptation. These policy areas include strategic planning, public finance and investment and support for private investment. Each building block includes examples of international good practice, diagnostic questions and links to further resources.
This Framework is non-prescriptive and flexible, reflecting the context-specific nature of climate impacts and differences between countries’ priorities, financial resources and capacities, including the specific challenges faced by developing countries. Rather than setting out a fixed agenda for reform, it provides policy makers with a set of questions to ask about the policy environment as part of the process of setting priorities and identifying potential areas for reform. It can be used for self-evaluation by countries, as part of peer-review processes or as a basis for dialogue between the public and private sectors.