The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Report (AR6) clearly states that climate change impacts are contributing to humanitarian crises in places of high vulnerability. Climate-related disasters are causing increasingly irreversible losses and damages, particularly when they compound existing drivers of chronic crises, such as food insecurity, extreme poverty, conflict, and economic and social marginalisation. According to the IPCC, 40% of people globally already live in highly climate-vulnerable areas (IPCC 2023). The IPCC projects that risks of biodiversity loss, environmental degradation, increased droughts, floods and heatwaves, as well as water scarcity, food insecurity, deteriorating human health, premature deaths and displacement, could reach perilous levels before the end of the century (IPCC 2022). To avoid, or at least alleviate such crises, it is crucial to rapidly expand both mitigation efforts to limit warming and adaptation measures to address the impacts that are already avoidable
The brief provides a comprehensive analysis of barriers to accessing climate-related finance for local actors, across the climate and humanitarian systems, through the lens of locally-led approaches. It then proposes solutions to overcome these barriers and to enhance the role of local actors in climate adaptation and resilience efforts.