PUBLIC-PRIVATE partnerships through blended finance structures will play a key role amid louder calls to scale up and coordinate climate-adaptation action, observers told The Business Times.

Catalytic funding from the government would be an important starting point to lower the risks of adaptation-development projects, but the observers also said that it is paramount for the private sector to invest in such measures to build business resilience – especially for sectors such as agriculture, which is directly exposed to climate-change impacts.

Those comments came in the wake of the Paris Agreement’s first Global Stocktake synthesis report, which showed that adaptation efforts are not keeping pace with increasing climate impacts and risks. The report will play a key role in the upcoming United Nations (UN) Climate Conference in Dubai, which begins in late November, as negotiators contemplate the future of their climate commitments.