By Luc Gnacadja*
As world leaders gather for the New York Climate Week starting on September 22, they will have to face an undeniable truth: even if all greenhouse gas emissions were to cease today, the planet would still be on a trajectory exceeding +2°C, due to the irreversible footprint of past emissions, as recently demonstrated by James Hansen and his colleagues[1]. Adapting to climate change is no longer an option: it has become a universal necessity, especially for developing countries. In this concerning context, financing for adaptation remains fragmented, insufficient, and misaligned with the needs of the most vulnerable. Born on African soil, the Adaptation Benefits Mechanism (ABM) proposes a credible alternative – one that values results over rhetoric and allows those on the front lines to define, lead, and directly benefit from their adaptation efforts.
In Africa, adapting to climate change is not just a matter of survival; it is the new frontier where global climate financing must be rethought. While adaptation continues to be treated as the lesser sibling or even the poor parent of mitigation (representing less than 7% of climate finance), Africa possesses both the urgency and the vision necessary to chart a different course.
What if, instead of being the last to access climate funds, Africa showed the world how to make adaptation a lever for prosperity, resilience, and inclusive growth?
From idea to implementation instrument
Launched in 2019 by the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Adaptation Benefits Mechanism (ABM, also known by its acronym in English) was designed to mobilize results-based financing for adaptation. It is now considered a pioneering model of results-based adaptation financing, emphasizing transparency, credibility, and local ownership.
Earlier this year, the ABM became the first non-market approach officially registered under Article 6.8 of the Paris Agreement, a recognition of its strategic value in the evolution of the climate finance landscape.
Why am I enthusiastic about this as co-chair of its executive committee? Because the ABM demonstrates that with only a fraction of the funds allocated to mitigation through carbon markets, adaptation can also become measurable, traceable, and financeable on a large scale with significant and tangible returns on investment. It also shows that local communities can be at the heart of the process.
Valuing what matters
Unlike mitigation, easily quantifiable through emission reductions, adaptation has long lacked an equivalent unit of value. The ABM has filled this gap by introducing the Certified Adaptation Benefit (CAB): a measurable, verifiable, and country-approved adaptation result.
The mechanism is not strictly a source of funding. Rather, it enables climate actors to invest in certified adaptation results based on transparency, accountability, and impact. It enhances ambition, reduces risks for early investments, encourages private sector engagement, and ensures that real benefits reach the most vulnerable communities.
The pilot phase of the ABM has already demonstrated the viability of the concept through concrete projects and initial methodologies, generating strong interest from governments, development banks, and private actors. The ABM was not designed to remain small-scale: it was intended to grow, and the conditions for this scaling up are now in place.
A continuum of financing
The strength of the ABM lies as much in its logic as in its flexibility. From the outset, its project cycle was designed around a forward-looking model, now called the “ex-ante” model, which allows project proponents to access initial capital through an Adaptation Benefit Supply Agreement (ABSA). This mechanism helps reduce risks associated with early implementation stages and mobilize private co-financing.
Subsequently, a complementary “ex-post” model was developed: it certifies results after implementation and generates CABs that can be monetized to support replication or reinjection of capital. This introduces a virtuous circle of investment, where adaptation results are not funded only once but become levers for scaling up. Together, these two modalities create a continuum combining credibility and continuity: one ensuring readiness, the other ensuring sustainability.
An eloquent illustration is the SLAMDAM pilot project in the Omojuwa district, in the local government area of Kosofe in Lagos, Nigeria. There, a system of water-filled mobile barriers was deployed as part of the ABM pilot project to protect over 5,000 residents, 50 small businesses, six primary schools, an orphanage for abandoned children, and critical infrastructure. Thanks to “ex-ante” financing, anticipated benefits such as infrastructure protection and access maintenance enabled the quick unlocking of initial capital. Now, an “ex-post” verification of actual benefits is underway to demonstrate the effectiveness of the system and its capacity for replication on a larger scale.
Local, scalable, and strategic
The true promise of the ABM lies in its programmatic use at the subnational level. Local communities and community organizations can aggregate portfolios of adaptation activities (resilient agriculture, nature-based solutions, early warning systems, etc.) under a single methodological framework.
These local portfolios can align with National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and become key components of national platforms that channel climate finance to end beneficiaries.
The ABM thus becomes more than just a mechanism: it transforms into a true implementation platform, scalable, modular, and rooted in local action.
Born on African soil
Emerging from the African continent, the ABM disrupts the usual dynamics of climate financing by empowering those most exposed. It demonstrates that actors on the continent are innovating boldly, designing mechanisms worthy of global adoption.
Africa is at the forefront of climate vulnerabilities, yet too often at the back when it comes to distributing funds. The ABM represents a credible model, born on African soil, to reverse this trend – a model that values local knowledge, strengthens institutions, creates public-private synergies, and promotes empowerment rather than dependency.
For African governments, the ABM can become a strategic lever to operationalize NAPs and NDCs, while strengthening the role of subnational actors. For the entire Global South, it offers a replicable framework combining ambition, accountability, and sovereignty of action.
From fragmentation to coherence
One of the persistent obstacles to adaptation financing is its fragmentation. Too many initiatives remain isolated, dictated by donors, and disconnected from national strategies and local priorities. The ABM offers a compelling alternative: structured, verifiable, and modular pathways to produce impact. Scaling up the ABM will require credible methodologies, strong institutional support, and a conducive environment. But the foundations of a new architecture for adaptation financing are already in place.
If adaptation continues to be perceived solely as a cost, Africa will remain sidelined. But if the world is willing to draw inspiration from African innovations like the Adaptation Benefits Mechanism, then adaptation can become the true arena for reshaping climate finance.
And now?
The real question is no longer whether Africa is ready.
It is how boldly it will choose to lead – and whether the rest of the world will have the wisdom to follow.
*About the author
Luc Gnacadja is President of GPS-Development and Co-Chair of the Executive Committee of the Adaptation Benefits Mechanism (ABM). He previously served as Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and as Minister of Environment and Urban Development of Benin.
[1] Hansen, J.E. et al. (2023), Global warming in the pipeline, Oxford Open Climate Change, Volume 3, Issue 1. Available at: academic.oup.com
