Coalition of Finance Ministers Event - Adaptation Working Group High-Level Roundtable Summary Read-Out
Co-hosted by the UN Foundation and Partners | Spring Meetings 2025
Date: 25th April 2025
Location: Washington, D.C., USA
This high-level roundtable convened ministries of finance, development banks, investors, and civil society to explore actionable solutions to unlock capital for climate adaptation. Held under Chatham House Rule, the session was co-chaired by the governments of Uganda, the Netherlands, and Indonesia, and co-organised by the UN Foundation, World Resources Institute (WRI), DanChurchAid, UNEP and the Adaptation Working Group of the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action. Opening remarks by Cristina Rumbaitis del Rio of the UN Foundation called for a shift from diagnosing the adaptation finance gap to delivering concrete solutions. She challenged participants to identify how ministries of finance can lead in structuring public finance to leverage capital at scale. The session followed two tracks: domestic finance systems and private capital mobilisation.
The video presentation of Dr. Nicola Ranger and Mr. Jay Koh can be found here.
Domestic Finance Systems and Fiscal Policy
Dr. Sam Mugume Koojo (Uganda) emphasised adaptation as an economic priority requiring systemic financial leadership from finance ministries. He outlined three focus areas for the Coalition's workstream through 2026: managing climate risk, scaling best practices, and improving access to adaptation finance.
Dr. Nicola Ranger (University of Oxford and Executive Director at Earth Capital Nexus, London School of Economics) presented a framework for integrating climate risks into fiscal governance (presentation is here):
Integration: Embed physical risk in macroeconomic models and debt sustainability.
Alignment: Ensure public budgets support resilience goals.
Enabling Environment: Establish regulatory and institutional systems that facilitate finance.
Mobilisation: Deploy public finance strategically to crowd in private capital.
Key Discussion Points
Transparency around climate risks can enhance creditworthiness; unmanaged risks are already priced into financial markets.
Fiscal risk and debt sustainability are compatible with climate resilience.
Concessional finance remains vital for highly indebted countries with limited fiscal space.
Domestic resource mobilisation, including carbon pricing and subsidy reform, was highlighted despite political sensitivity.
Pragmatic planning should prioritise feasibility over perfection.
Subnational actors and cities must be supported through improved fiscal autonomy.
Bhutan was cited as an example of integrated planning across ministries.
A live repository of case studies was proposed to share replicable good practices.
Private Capital Mobilisation
Jay Koh (Lightsmith Group) emphasised that adaptation is not a choice but a reality. (presentation here) He shared that:
Less than 5% of global climate finance flows to adaptation. Climate impacts are now a near-certain planning factor for investors. Climate risks are more predictable than many other risks investors are managing, and not incorporating these risks represents a real cost to both the public and private sectors.
Resilience investments are already yielding returns across agriculture, energy, and infrastructure.
The CRAFT fund, supported by GCF, EIB, and others, has proven that adaptation technologies are investable.
The SCALE platform strategy—an integrated investment approach to climate adaptation investment (a “virtual green bank for adaptation”)—could scale up private investment in adaptation and climate resilience across equity, credit, and technical assistance and could be an important counterparty to country platforms.
Blended finance must be scaled with clearer resilience metrics.
Public-private partnerships and performance-based targets can drive innovation.
Key Discussion Points:
Institutional investors are recognising climate risk as a central investment driver, and sovereign wealth funds are beginning to assess climate resilience as an investment opportunity.
The market for resilience-related technologies is rapidly expanding, growing from $170 billion in 2018 to an estimated $480 billion by 2025.
The CRISP framework helps map investable climate resilience technologies across water, energy, agriculture, and infrastructure sectors.
Adaptation investments can be commercially viable, with the CRAFT Fund showcasing examples such as satellite analytics for wildfire risk and precision agriculture technologies in Brazil.
Public-private partnerships must evolve to set measurable performance-based targets for adaptation, enabling the private sector to respond through innovation.
Governments can create enabling environments and de-risk early-stage deployment using blended finance, guarantees, and technical assistance.
Participants stressed the need to move beyond adaptation as a cost toward framing resilience as a competitive advantage and growth strategy and sound risk management.
Multi-stakeholder partnerships, where private investors and companies, as well as civil society actors, collaborate, have potential, and can reduce risks, promote localisation, and strengthen the possibilities for sustainable effects. Publication: From Loss to Value Creation - DanChurchAid
Published Report shared by Jay Koh:
The Private Equity Opportunity in Climate Adaptation and Resilience
Sizing the Inevitable Investment Opportunity: Climate Adaptation
Closing Reflections
Closing remarks reaffirmed the central role of finance ministries and the urgency of building adaptation capacity. Ministries were encouraged to lead and integrate climate into national development, while public finance institutions must coordinate better and support country-level planning, with technical tools and data.
Upcoming Resources & Initiatives
Coalition paper on physical climate risk (Q2 2025), G20 presentation & training
OECD Climate Adaptation Investment Framework and OECD Blended Finance Guidance (2024)
CIF Economic Resilience Programme (pending approval by its board)
CRISP tool, CCDRS, and CRAFT Fund for adaptation technology
Repository of case studies (proposed)
