New Report Highlights the Need for Increased Climate Finance for Water to Vulnerable Communities

According to a new report from the Overseas Development Institute and commissioned by WaterAid, only 1% of the billions pledged globally to fight climate change goes to protecting and providing water for vulnerable communities. Just Add Water: A Landscape Analysis of Climate Finance for Water was written to help establish where donors and national governments could better direct or prioritize climate investments, particularly for water-related climate issues. The report was launched ahead of the first global meeting of all public development banks to discuss climate change, the Finance in Common Summit, which takes place today.

Jonathan Farr, Senior Policy Analyst for Climate Change at WaterAid: 

“The climate crisis is playing out before our eyes already, from devastating flooding in Pakistan to droughts in Zambia.  

“WaterAid works on the ground with the communities worst affected by climate change; for example, people living in Africa’s Sahel region, where climate uncertainty in the form of long dry seasons, frequent droughts, and poor access to water threatens lives and livelihoods every single day.” 

In spite of the increasing frequency and severity of water-related impacts from climate change, the report found that not enough financial resources are being directed towards the provision of water, decent toilets, and good hygiene — collectively known as WASH services. Figures from the report indicate that only 10% of the climate-related finance allocated for water programs by international donors goes to such programs, equivalent to a mer 0.99% of their overall total climate-related finance commitments.

In some countries in which access to water is already poor, that’s around $1 per person per year for the people facing the droughts, flooding and disease which climate change is already bringing about.

Farr added:

“This report shows us that the world is not responding to the climate crisis by prioritizing the most vulnerable. Instead, the poorest communities, those on the front lines of climate change who are already feeling the impacts, are being left to pick up the bill themselves.

“We must meet this injustice with urgent and significant action on a global scale, and provide everyone, everywhere with the tools they need to combat the growing threat of climate change.”

And while climate adaptation has received a share of climate finance commitments, only a small portion are being allocated to projects focusing on adapting to withstand the impacts of climate change on water: around 8.7% of the $73 billion USD that donors committed globally to fight climate change in 2018, according to the report. Yet the majority of these adaptation funds are going towards middle income countries, despite the fact that the world’s poorest countries are often most vulnerable to climate change. The report also found that 86% of the finance offered fro climate adaptation within the water sector takes the form of loans rather than grants — potentially exacerbating the debt of vulnerable countries and communities.

Nathaniel Mason, Research Associate specialising in water, sanitation and climate change at ODI:

“This research should be a wake-up call to refocus on helping the people and countries that are most vulnerable to climate change and related threats, to listen to their priorities better, and to think more creatively about how we finance climate change adaptation.”

WaterAid is calling for the world’s most vulnerable people to be moved up to the front of the queue when it comes to international financial support. The international charity is due to hold high-level discussions with representatives of governments and aid agencies along with climate and water experts later this week to set out a program of changes required to support climate resilience for the world’s poorest communities.

This follows a pledge at WaterAid’s Water and Climate Summit, hosted by His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales in March 2020, to work towards boosting finance for climate-resilient water, sanitation and hygiene services.

DOWNLOAD THE FULL REPORT - Just Add Water: A Landscape Analysis of Climate Finance for Water

Portions of this press release were drawn from the WaterAid article “New figures show the world’s poorest miss out on climate cash, despite being hardest hit”