CERF Funded Climate Action Report 2024

Executive Summary

Building on the inaugural report on 2023 CERF-funded climate action, this year’s edition provides a comprehensive overview of CERF’s climate action portfolio in 2024. It details CERF-funded responses to climate-related emergencies during the year (see page 15) and highlights CERF’s contributions to climate-smart humanitarian action that supports climate change adaptation and resilience (see page 24). The report also updates on the operationalization of the CERF Climate Action Account (CCAA), launched late in 2023, documenting the added value that the CCAA brings to CERF’s role within the broader climate financing landscape (see page 30).

In 2024, climate change continued to exacerbate extreme weather events worldwide, resulting in widespread adverse impacts on ecosystems and communities, especially in fragile and conflict-affected settings, despite their minimal historical contribution to climate change. Over 100 million people living in such contexts were affected by climate-related hazards in 2024 and required humanitarian assistance (see page 15).

Amid these challenges, and with thanks to continued donor support, CERF reaffirmed its role in 2024 as the leading global humanitarian funding tool for climate-related emergencies. This was achieved through its global reach and unparalleled speed, and strategic funding prioritization by frontline humanitarian responders (see page 10).

In 2024, the Fund allocated $203.5 million—35 per- cent of its total funding ($575 million)—to support UN agencies and humanitarian partners in assisting 10.5 million people affected by climate-related emergencies in 31 countries.

Enabled by CERF’s speed and flexibility, rapid response activities to mitigate the impact of climate-related crises commenced, on average, just two days after the submission of funding applications (see page 18). In Mozambique, for example, CERF launched a $4 million allocation just hours after Tropical Cyclone Chido made landfall, enabling swift humanitarian action while the Cyclone Flash Appeal was still being finalized (see page 25).

During the year, CERF continued to promote more efficient and effective humanitarian action through proactive allocation approaches to get ahead of predictable climate-related shocks.

By year-end, CERF had committed $121 million to 19 climate-related anticipatory action (AA) frameworks across 16 of the world’s most climate-vulnerable countries. Four of these frameworks were activated ahead of climate disasters in 2024, resulting in the early dis- bursement of $19.6 million for life-saving activities in relation to severe floodings in Bangladesh, Chad, Nepal and Niger (see page 21). For example, in Bangladesh, CERF released funding in just 16 minutes after flood warnings, allowing humanitarian partners to reach communities 5 days ahead of the peak impact, before flooding cut off roads (see page 22).

During the year, CERF achieved a significant mile- stone by committing $10.5 million for innovative, life-saving humanitarian action that promotes climate adaptation and resilience in nine countries. This thematic allocation catalyzed climate-smart initiatives, advancing new or best practices to enhance the adaptive capacities and resilience of over 222,500 vulnerable people, primarily in fragile and conflict-affected settings (see page 31).

The $10.5 million in dedicated thematic funding for climate-smart programming was made possible by generous donor contributions to the CCAA, which has raised an additional $18 million for CERF’s climate efforts since its inception in late 2023 (see page 40).

In addition to the thematic funding, the CCAA brought a sharper, more deliberate focus on climate change adaptation and resilience across CERF’s portfolio. This included incentivizing and documenting climate-smart humanitarian action across CERF-supported activities through the introduction of mandatory climate-related information in all CERF proposals and climate-specific results indicators (see page 36). The CCAA also helped fuel the scale-up of CERF-supported AA for predictable climate shocks (see page 37) and provided a platform for OCHA to enhance collaboration with the humanitarian community in responding to the climate crisis. It helped raise awareness of the importance of humanitarian action in mitigating the impacts of climate change on vulnerable communities and advocated for targeted climate financing in fragile and conflict-affected contexts (see page 39).

Looking ahead, continued, predictable and sustained contributions to the CCAA will be crucial to maintaining these achievements and ensuring lasting change.