Belém, Brazil – Dr Arjun Karki,  International Coordinator of LDC Watch, a civil society group advocating on behalf of Least Developed Countries (LDCs), has sharply criticized developed countries for failing to deliver on their climate finance commitments, warning that vulnerable nations are being “sacrificed” due to chronic underfunding of the Adaptation Fund (AF). Speaking on the sideline event, ‘Bridging the Climate Finance Gap: Make the Global North Deliver ‘ in Belém, Dr Karki said that the Adaptation Fund has raised only US$ 2 billion in 20 years.

“This delay costs lives. Global South cannot wait. We need urgent, public, grant-based adaptation finance,” he added. “Parties were expected to renew their commitments to the AF, yet meaningful pledges remain elusive.”

The Adaptation Fund has been “woefully underfunded,” receiving only around USD 2 billion since its establishment more than two decades ago, said Dr Karki. “This shows that rich countries are not interested in financing our future and survival,” he said, accusing developed nations of favouring private finance and market-based instruments while delaying their obligations for public climate finance. He added that developed countries failed to meet the Glasgow Climate Pact commitment to double adaptation finance by 2025.

The adaptation finance gap is now estimated at USD 310–365 billion per year — 12 to 14 times higher than current financial flows and greater than the expected New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG). Dr Karki stressed that every dollar withheld in adaptation finance “translates to a hundredfold loss and damage cost for the Global South,” and each year of delay results in “avoidable loss of lives.”

He highlighted that frontline communities — including women, children, Indigenous Peoples, workers, and smallholder food producers — continue to bear the brunt of accelerating climate impacts. “At the heart of the issue is justice and reparations,” Dr Karki said, arguing that developed countries persistently stall adaptation negotiations to avoid acknowledging their historical and ongoing responsibility for the climate crisis and the disproportionate vulnerability it has created.

As COP30 draws to a close in Belém, Brazil, adaptation finance emerged as a defining fault line between developed and developing countries. Negotiators from Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and other vulnerable blocs have repeatedly warned that without predictable, grants-based public finance, adaptation planning and implementation will stall, undermining global efforts to meet the Paris Agreement goals. The summit has seen renewed appeals for scaling up adaptation funds, reforming global finance mechanisms, and operationalising a more equitable NCQG that responds to the real needs of climate-vulnerable nations.

“We have run out of time for excuses, delays, and lies,” Dr Karki declared. “Without urgent, public, grants-based adaptation finance, we are being condemned to permanent harm. We are not just being denied support; we are being sacrificed. We need adaptation justice NOW — not only to cope with our catastrophic realities, but to secure the future of our people.”

The 30th UN Climate Change Conference (also known as COP30) concluded in Belém on Saturday (22^nd November)  without any new pledges to cut fossil fuels.