Many developing nations are struggling to generate the financing they need to adapt to extreme weather and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. For example, UNEP’s Adaptation Gap Report finds that nations will need up to US$365 billion a year by 2035 to adapt to climate change – around 12 times what they have access to now. UNEP is helping to change that equation. 

Through the UN-REDD Programme, UNEP supported 17 tropical countries as they put in place social and environmental safeguards that are prerequisites to accessing a combined US$3 billion in results-based payments in return for protecting forests. This work could help prevent the release of 300 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, equal to the annual emissions of 80 coal-fired powerplants. 

Meanwhile, UNEP’s State of Finance for Forests report found the world must dramatically scale up investments in forests to counter climate change and nature loss. The report was one of the data sources that informed Brazil’s creation of a fund at COP30, initially backed with US$6.7 billion, to protect tropical forests. 

Paraguay shows what’s possible when countries safeguard their forests. With UNEP technical support, the nation secured US$50 million in results-based finance for avoiding the release of 23 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions by reducing deforestation. 

From 2022 to 2025, UNEP provided seed capital to forest restoration projects across 13 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. That financing helped generate an additional US$212 million from private sector investors. In all, the effort aims to restore and protect 849 square kilometres of forests and prevent 54 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.