Remittances for Adaptation: An ‘Alternative Source’ of International Climate Finance?

Abstract

Climate finance is a key issue at the UN climate negotiations, but explicit international funding possibilities for adaptation in developing countries remain limited. According to the recent Paris Agreement, climate finance will come from a ‘wide variety of sources, instruments and channels’. To the extent that these are understood, they do not seem to generate the USD 100 billion per annum that was repeatedly pledged by developed countries, and they flow to mitigation rather than adaptation. Remittances have potential to finance adaptation, because (1) the potential is huge and unexplored); (2) remittances directly reach to households, including in remote and vulnerable areas; (3) remittances are often employed for (climate-induced) disaster relief and sometimes also for investments in long-term adaptation strategies.