Financial leaders call for adaptation resources.

Leaders from the world's top development banks have acknowledged that significant research and funding gaps are preventing developing countries from adapting adequately to climate change.

Sustainable development initiatives often do not factor in climate change, and without greater resources as part of an international climate agreement, developing countries will not be able to finance climate change adaptation plans, said representatives of the World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB), and Inter-American Development Bank.

"We really have to get our acts together," said Ursula Schafer-Preuss, the ADB's vice president of knowledge management and sustainable development. "Migration in low island states and Bangladesh is a huge problem, but we do not know what to do about it."

Depending on the region, climate change is expected to cause various effects that include widespread drought as glaciers melt, coastal flooding as sea levels rise, and changes in crop production as weather patterns shift, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Adaptation plans strive to protect regions from climate change-related fatalities or economic losses. Examples include water conservation measures and the use of flood-resistant crops. According to the United Nations Development Programme, developing countries will need US$86 billion per year by 2015 for adaptation efforts. So far, the Global Environment Facility, an independent partnership headquartered at the World Bank, manages three adaptation funds that total about $200 million.

The successor climate agreement to the Kyoto Protocol, being negotiated this year, will include a revised version of the Adaptation Fund. The fund is financed by a 2-percent levy on the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) investments that polluting countries finance in developing countries to compensate for the polluters' greenhouse gas emissions.

Climate negotiators will meet in Copenhagen in December to determine the details of future carbon markets, including how the Adaptation Fund and CDM system will function.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]