This workshop discussed the mobilisation of private investments in climate change adaptation. In the 2015 Paris Agreement, developed countries reaffirmed their commitment from the 2009 Copenhagen Accord to mobilise USD 100 billion annually by 2020 to support climate-change mitigation and adaptation in developing countries. A substantial share of this money is supposed to come from private sources. A second reason for mobilising private investments in adaptation is that the costs of adaptation are too high to be met by the public sector alone. UNEP’s 2016 Adaptation Finance Gap report estimates the annual adaptation costs at up to USD 300 billion by 2030.

Yet how realistic is it to assume that the private sector can finance adaptation, in particular in less developed countries such as Kenya and Rwanda?

This workshops aimed to answer this question for Kenya. At the workshop, we discussed enabling environments, mobilisation of private resources as well as delivery of finance for adaptation with key actors from the government, the private sector, civil society and research.