Governments are falling 90 percent short of adaptation finance targets, leaving climate-vulnerable communities drastically under-equipped to cope with the impacts of climate change, Oxfam warned ahead of the Bonn climate talks (8-18 June), according to a press release. The warning, published on 2 June 2026, draws on figures from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the UNEP Adaptation Gap Report 2025. Oxfam is urging leaders meeting in Bonn to address the gap between adaptation finance promised and the resources actually reaching vulnerable communities. The organization argues that wealthy polluters must be made to pay to bridge the shortfall.
According to the OECD, as of 2024, governments mobilized $32 billion in public adaptation finance — around 90 percent short of the $310 billion to $365 billion projected needs for developing countries by 2035. To bridge this gap, rich countries would have to increase their adaptation financing tenfold. The total climate finance of $137 billion reached in 2024 is also just a fraction of what countries need to transition away from fossil fuels. Of that total, $102 billion came in the form of public finance, mostly as loans. The UNEP Adaptation Gap Report 2025 calculates that adaptation finance needed in low- and middle-income countries reaches $310 billion per year in 2035 based on modelled costs, rising to $365 billion when based on Nationally Determined Contributions and National Adaptation Plans.
Oxfam highlights that those who have done the least to cause the climate crisis are being hit hardest and short-changed from the funding promised to help them. People across the Global South, women, girls and Indigenous groups are overwhelmingly bearing the costs of environmental devastation. Meanwhile, super-rich corporations and individuals, largely based in the Global North, have seen their wealth skyrocket. The profits of the six biggest fossil fuel corporations are projected to hit $94 billion in 2026, continuing to attract mega-investors. Almost 60 percent of billionaire investments are classified as being in high climate impact sectors, such as mining or oil and gas corporations.
“For too long, governments have coddled a super-rich elite whose huge emissions and dirty investments in polluting industries are throttling climate action. At Bonn, leaders must tackle this unequal concentration of wealth and power. It’s time to make rich polluters pay, and channel that wealth into accessible, participatory climate finance in a way that reaches the communities who need it most,” said Mariana Paoli, Oxfam International’s Climate Lead.
Recent polling commissioned by Oxfam across seven countries found that approximately two-thirds (68 percent) of the public support increasing taxes on the profits of large oil and gas corporations to help fund a fair transition to renewable energy. The poll, conducted by Norstat in April 2026, gathered responses from people in the UK, France, Brazil, Turkey, Australia, the Netherlands and Colombia.
Oxfam urges governments to:
- Slash the emissions of the super-rich and make the richest polluters pay, through taxation on extreme wealth, excess profits taxes on fossil fuel corporations, and a carbon capital levy on investments in polluting sectors.
- Remove the financial barriers blocking a Just Transition by cancelling debt, phasing out fossil fuel subsidies and overhauling a financial architecture systemically skewed against Global South countries.
- Substantially increase climate finance to support communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis, fulfilling the $300 billion annual target agreed at COP29, including tripling funding flows for adaptation, and substantially increasing resources to address loss and damage.
