UNEP Climate Adaptation: Impact Report 2026
Policy to practice
Landscape restoration
Ecosystem-based adaptation
Protection economics
01
In The Gambia, 530 hectares of mangroves restored provide a living barrier against storms, erosion and rising seas. Mangrove roots trap sediment, rebuild shorelines and create nurseries for fish. The ecosystem returns: community fishing enterprises thrive.
02
Nepal restored 130+ hectares of forest and 150 hectares of rangelands in the high mountains. Healthy forests regulate water supply, prevent landslides and stabilize slopes. 400 government officials and community leaders trained now embed these principles in local planning.
03
Mauritania's project rehabilitated 1,400 hectares of degraded land through wetland restoration and water harvesting. The result: 18,000 people in 3,000 households gain access to reliable water and pasture during droughts and floods.
04
In Tanzania, 1,245 hectares of mangrove restoration and 3,000 m² of coral reef restoration combine with 2,800 metres of sea defences and 10 boreholes improving water access for 10,000 people. Nature and engineering together create resilience.
The central challenge
From the Tigris-Euphrates basin stretching across four countries to Nepal's mountains, water scarcity drives conflict, hunger and displacement. UNEP helps countries restore landscapes that capture and hold water, build boreholes and rainwater systems, and strengthen communities to weather droughts and floods. The solutions exist. The work is implementation.
01
CityAdapt transformed San Salvador, Kingston and Xalapa with 29 rainwater harvesting systems, 30 absorption wells and 40,000 metres of vegetated infiltration ditches. Concrete becomes a sponge. Urban flooding drops. Water feeds plants and aquifers.
02
CityAdapt restored 600 hectares of agroforestry systems, 2 hectares of wetlands and 3.5 km of urban riverbanks. Fruit and timber trees feed neighbourhoods. Wetlands breed mosquito-eating fish and filter water. Cities are not concrete—they can be gardens.
03
Generation Restoration Cities reached 1.5 million people, trained 2,360 individuals in nature-based solutions and urban resilience, and influenced 31 local and national policies. Knowledge moves from pilot to law.
04
The projects restored 4 hectares of pilot areas and identified 3,188 hectares for future restoration. The vision is clear: every city, every neighbourhood can integrate nature as infrastructure. Scaling has begun.
21,000 hectares of mountain habitat restored
hectares of mountain habitat restored
The Hindu Kush Himalaya, Andes, and Central Asian ranges are home to vulnerable communities and hold the world's fresh water. UNEP's mountain work restored habitat, strengthened protection across 65,000 hectares, and established the 800,000-hectare Kyrgyzstan ecological corridor—a transboundary signal that adaptation operates at landscape scale. 53,800 people benefit from these ecosystems.
The Early Warnings for All initiative (EW4All) aims to ensure that every person worldwide is protected by an early warning system by 2027. Investing US$800 million in early warning could avert between US$3 billion and US$16 billion in losses annually.
UNEP Climate Adaptation: Impact Report 2026, p. 27
01
UNEP Finance Initiative convened 27 leading banks, engaged 16 development finance institutions, and brought together 80+ financial institutions in an Adaptation Finance Community of Practice. Money flows where relationships exist.
02
UNEP piloted insurance schemes in 10 countries across the V20 Sustainable Insurance Facility. In Uganda, 5,000 smallholder banana farmers now access climate-resilient insurance. Plans scale to 50,000 farmers. Risk transfer becomes adaptation.
03
UNEP's adaptation project portfolio reached US$550 million in 2025. 10 NDC Action partner countries (2019–2024) structured investment-ready projects that align with national planning. The barrier is not the cost. It is moving money into the right hands.
Effective adaptation requires integrated, systems-based approaches that combine nature-based and engineered solutions and operate at the appropriate scale. Science-based analysis combining climate risk information with vulnerability information builds awareness for increased action. Inclusion must be deliberate and systemic, requiring continuous engagement and alignment with institutional, policy and financing systems.
UNEP Climate Adaptation: Impact Report 2026, pp. 34–36
Finance and implementation
The Adaptation Gap Report is clear: while countries advance National Adaptation Plans and incorporate adaptation into Nationally Determined Contributions, major gaps persist in access to climate finance and effective implementation of solutions. COP29 committed to tripling climate finance from US$100 billion to US$300 billion annually by 2035—a historic step. But the work of moving that money, designing investment-ready projects, and aligning domestic finance systems has just begun.
Governments must increase adaptation funding from public and private sources, embed climate resilience into building codes and national planning, involve the domestic financial sector early in project design, and leverage existing finance instruments. The solutions exist. Implementation and political will are what remain.
Read the full reportClick the numbers to see how each part of the model shows up in one classroom.
The front table
Where the coach and teacher work with the children who need most help.
The library box
Forty levelled readers, swapped between classrooms each term.
The parents' bench
Where reading circles meet once a month after school.
Where the magic happens