On the heels of last month's warning from the U.N. climate science panel that extreme weather and rising seas are arriving faster than expected, leaders on Monday called for more money and political will to help people adapt to the new reality.
At a dialogue in Rotterdam convened by the Global Center on Adaptation, more than 50 ministers and heads of climate organizations and development banks called for November's COP26 climate talks to treat adaptation as "urgent."
In a communique, they said adaptation — which ranges from building higher flood defenses to growing more drought-tolerant crops and relocating coastal communities — had not benefited from the same attention, resources or level of action as efforts to cut planet-heating emissions.