Development Banks Boost Adaptation Finance, Trump Attacks Climate Guide for Courts, UN Backs AI-Powered Early Warnings, and More

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Multilateral development banks (MDBs) committed an all-time high US$102.6bn in climate finance to low- and middle-income countries in 2025, a 21% jump from the previous year, exceeding targets set in 2019. Total MDB climate finance to all countries reached nearly US$163bn.

Adaptation finance to poorer economies climbed 31% to US$34.6bn, nearing the US$42bn annual goal MDBs set for 2030. For high-income countries, the total was US$7bn. Mitigation spending still dominates overall flows, led by energy, transport and buildings.

Private capital mobilization for climate hit US$35bn for low- and middle-income countries, and US$80bn for their richer peers, demonstrating how blended finance structures are gaining traction. Still, loans accounted for the bulk of instruments used, a type of financing recently criticized by the NGO Oxfam for adding to poor countries’ debt burdens.

European Union countries received the largest amount of MDB climate finance, at US$53.4bn. Latin America and the Caribbean followed with US$22.7bn.

The White House’s planned overhaul of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) could shift billions in disaster costs onto US states, straining budgets and debt capacity, according to a new report from S&P Global. The President's Council recommendations, issued this May, would raise state cost-shares to 50% from 25%, replace reimbursements with parametric payouts, and devolve administrative burdens to states. While most states hold reserves near 14.1% of revenue, cushioning them against near-term shocks, under a high-stress scenario, nine states — including Louisiana, Alaska and Virginia — would incur costs that could lead to a change in how their debt burdens are scored by the rating agency. (S&P Global)

Global natural catastrophe losses totaled US$142bn in the first half of 2026 according to Gallagher Re, 10% below the decade average. Insurers paid out US$46bn — 28% below the average, leaving a US$96bn protection gap. Excluding non-climate-related disasters, the total was US$104bn, significantly lower than the US$139bn average. However, the reinsurer warns that an intensifying El Niño, while suppressing Atlantic hurricane counts, could redirect landfall risk toward the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast — where insured values are high. (Gallagher Re)

The Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund (ARAF) has raised an additional US$90mn to expand climate-resilient agribusiness investments across Africa. The fund, which launched in 2020 as the first equity vehicle targeting smallholder farmer resilience, has reached over three million farmers through 12 portfolio companies, with more than 80% reporting higher income and yields. Returning backers Green Climate Fund, FMO and Proparco joined new investors Swedfund, BIO and FASA. ARAF plans to use the new capital to strengthen resilience for an additional four million farmers. (Acumen)

The Developing Eight (D8) bloc of countries launched the Istanbul Initiative for Climate Action on July 19, calling for at least US$1.3trn a year in climate finance for poor nations by 2035. The declaration urges donor countries to issue more grants, concessional financing, and blended finance in pursuit of their existing pledges. Adaptation ranks as a top priority — the bloc wants stronger backing for national adaptation plans, resilient infrastructure, water management and early warning systems. It also endorses COP30’s call to triple adaptation finance by 2035. (Daily News Egypt)

The UN-backed Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) has urged the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) not to scrap product-level climate disclosure requirements for institutional and retail investments, warning that a planned simplification could erode data quality for investors. Responding to an FCA consultation, the PRI backed streamlining reporting standards based on the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures but called for certain metrics  to remain standardized and public. Removing public accessibility would hit smaller investors reliant on open data for manager selection, the PRI said. (PRI)

President Trump ordered a review of a scientific reference manual for the federal judiciary, accusing the National Academy of Sciences of including “fraudulent, biased, and misleading” climate guidance that shaped major court rulings. The directive, issued via Truth Social on Sunday, calls for Federal Suspension ⁠and Debarment Officials to review “this conduct” — though what conduct, and by whom, was unclear.

The move follows February’s withdrawal of a climate chapter from the Federal Judicial Center’s Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence. More than 20 Republican attorneys general had argued the chapter, drafted by Columbia Law School’s Jessica Wentz and Radley Horton, was biased against fossil fuel companies.

Trump claimed the manuals caused “huge losses” nationally and called for taxpayer funding to end.

The Truth comes the same week the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine endorsed extreme event attribution science in a new report, finding researchers' methods for linking specific heat waves, floods and droughts to climate change have advanced "considerably" over the past decade. 

The endorsement has consequences for ongoing and future litigation. For example, Multnomah County, Oregon, cited attribution research in a US$50bn lawsuit against oil companies over a 2021 Pacific Northwest heat wave. 

A bipartisan bill introduced July 17 would create a Chief Resilience Officer within the White House to coordinate federal climate adaptation efforts. The National Coordination on Adaptation and Resilience for Security (NCARS) Act, backed by Representatives Scott Peters and María Salazar and Senators Chris Coons and Lisa Murkowski, would also set out a national adaptation strategy and implementation plan, authorize interagency working groups, and establish a federal information hub to bring resilience resources to communities. NCARS was also introduced in 2022 and 2023. (Representative Scott Peters)

California is ramping up pressure on mortgage lenders over the pace of insurance payouts to Los Angeles wildfire survivors, with Governor Newsom warning that firms which “needlessly” deny or delay access to insurance proceeds “are subject to state enforcement”. More than 18 months after the January 2025 firestorms, many survivors say they are unable to access relief funds because of delays to the release of insurance funds held in escrow by their mortgage lenders during construction. (Office of the Governor of California)

The UK government is investing up to £30mn (US$40mn) to bolster the evidence base underpinning climate adaptation policy, the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has said. The package includes £13mn (US$17.5mn) for the Met Office to develop next-generation climate projections and £17mn (US$22.8mn) to launch a What Works Centre for Climate Adaptation to surface evidence on what adaptations are effective. (UK Government)

The UK energy regulator Ofgem has launched an independent probe into the National Energy System Operator’s (NESO) handling of June’s record heatwave, when margins between electricity supply and demand tightened and warnings had to be sent to the country’s energy market. NESO itself has instructed law firm Eversheds Sutherland to investigate whistleblowing allegations concerning poor record-keeping and improper influence on decision-making by NESO corporate affairs staff, which Ofgem will oversee. The regulator will also conduct a post-event analysis and assessment of the incidents of system stress during extreme heat. (Ofgem)

London Mayor Sadiq Khan is backing calls for a maximum workplace temperature limit as UK heatwaves intensify, adding political weight to union demands the government has so far rejected. Unison and the TUC want a 30°C cap, or 27°C for strenuous work, after June’s record-breaking heatwave killed an estimated 440 people a day at its three-day peak. (The Guardian)

New Zealand’s Climate Change Response Amendment Bill would compel local councils to produce climate adaptation plans spanning at least 30 years, mapping flood and coastal hazards and attaching high-level cost estimates and financing pathways. Plans for the highest-priority communities must be completed within five years of a regional spatial plan’s adoption, the remainder within ten. (RNZ) 

The World Health Organization’s Europe office is pressing governments to climate-proof hospitals, warning that heat killed more than 200,000 people in the region over four years and that heat-related mortality has climbed 30% in two decades, with roughly 10,000 excess deaths already logged across five countries this summer. Regional director Hans Kluge framed the toll as almost entirely preventable, pointing to passive cooling, ventilation, shading and heat-oriented design as cost-effective fixes backed by WHO's Hospital Safety Index. (UN News)

UN Secretary-General António Guterres pressed for faster deployment of AI-driven early-warning systems on Thursday, warning that a strengthening El Niño will intensify floods, storms, and droughts for vulnerable populations.

“We urgently need to accelerate — and artificial intelligence can help,” said Guterres in a speech before the World Artificial Intelligence Conference Meteorological Forum in Shanghai. “It can deliver faster, earlier warnings, and alerts people can receive, understand and act on. A city that opens cooling centres before the heatwave peaks. A fishing village that brings its boats ashore. A farmer who plants differently after being warned the rains will fail.”

Guterres set three conditions for AI adoption: closing observation gaps, since Africa has fewer standard-compliant weather stations than some single European countries; building local capacity so vulnerable nations can operate systems themselves; and ensuring AI's rising power and water demands don’t worsen the crisis it’s meant to address.

Multi-hazard warning coverage now reaches 128 countries, more than double the 2015 total, but a third of nations remain exposed — overwhelmingly least-developed and small-island states.

Guterres also renewed calls for adaptation finance to match countries’ needs, calling current flows a fraction of requirements.

New York became the first US state to impose a data-center moratorium, with Governor Hochul barring new state permits for facilities of 50MW or larger for up to a year while officials build a framework to protect the grid, the environment, and ratepayers. The pause potentially affects more than a dozen projects and arrives as average residential electricity prices in the state have climbed nearly 68% since 2019. (Governor Kathy Hochul)

Kind Designs closed a US$10mn Pre-Series A, doubling its original target after nearly US$20mn in investor demand, valuing the Miami coastal resilience firm at US$70mn. The company’s 3D-printed Living Seawalls have been deployed for residential retrofits as well as for municipal and federal contracts, including a US$2mn US Navy award. NBA star Kyle Kuzma invested in the round alongside returning investors Mark Cuban and former Washington DC Mayor Adrian Fenty. The new capital will fund expansion into New York and California and triple factory production capacity. (Kind Designs)

Arctal, an AI-native data provider, is partnering with S&P Global’s Sustainable1 to distribute three datasets to institutional investors: green and transition capital expenditure, labelled bonds, and a new corporate adaptation and resilience dataset. The tie-up marks one of the first attempts to bring machine-scale, source-traceable adaptation data into mainstream financial markets, addressing a gap that has left investors reliant on patchy or self-reported disclosures. Terms of the partnership were not disclosed. (Arctal)

Spatial data start-up Hyades has raised NZ$1.5mn (US$0.9mn) in pre-seed funding led by Icehouse Ventures, with backing from K1W1, angel investors, and a New Zealand government grant. The Auckland-based company’s platform targets a persistent bottleneck in climate risk analysis: spatial data from satellites, drones, and climate records typically arrives in incompatible formats, requiring months of manual preparation before AI models can use it. Hyades compresses that timeline, keeping models current as conditions shift. Insurers are an early use case — automating flood records and satellite imagery into predictive models for property exposure. Funds will go toward enterprise co-design partnerships and AI engineering. (Startup Researcher)

Future flood risk concentration for residents near small rivers across the USA (Nature Sustainability)

Promises and pitfalls of climate adaptation tools across the Mediterranean (Communications Earth & Environment)

Dengue transmission risk in California under climate and land-use change: a semi-mechanistic modelling study (The Lancet Regional Health Americas)

Assessing cascading effects of climate change on the UK food system and food security (npj Science of Food)

Waterborne diseases and climate change (Nature Reviews Microbiology)

Climate change reshapes resource adequacy risks and optimal renewable energy siting in wind and solar energy systems (Nature Energy)

Balancing ex-ante and ex-post approaches for Loss and Damage policy in a fragmented world (npj Climate Action)

Biodiversity effects under climate extremes intensify with aridity in grasslands but not forests (Nature Ecology and Evolution)

Human climate niche, habitability range, and economic growth (Ecological Economics)

Thanks for reading!

Louie Woodall
Editor