Despite positioning itself as the ‘climate bank of Asia and the Pacific’, it is difficult to ascertain the Asian Development Bank’s claims of climate adaptation finance.

Oxfam analysed the bank’s 2019–2023 climate finance portfolio and conducted a detailed assessment of 15 climate adaptation projects, comprising 43% of reported adaptation finance for FY 2021 and 2022. Oxfam found that the Asian Development Bank (ADB) hugely overstates the reported amounts with potential over-reporting of 44% in average for the assessed projects.

This briefing paper calls for a transformative shift in the ADB’s adaptation finance strategies. The ADB must improve the accuracy and transparency of climate finance reporting and realign financial flows with the needs of the region's most vulnerable communities.

Senior Policy Advisor, Development Finance Institutions

Oxfam is a global organization working to end the injustice of poverty. We help people build better futures for themselves, hold the powerful accountable, and save lives in disasters. Local to global, Oxfam uses advocacy to tackle the systems, policies, and practices that keep people trapped in poverty. We take on inequality, climate justice, gender justice, and inequities in the food chain, and we advocate for the basic human rights and dignity of survivors of conflicts and disasters. We challenge governments, multinational companies, international organizations, and other actors to use their vast power and influence to improve the lives of poor and vulnerable people.

bp-unaccountable-adaptation-020524-en.pdf

Unaccountable Adaptation: The Asian Development Bank’s overstated claims on climate adaptation finance

Unaccountable Adaptation: The Asian Development Bank’s overstated claims on climate adaptation finance

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