By: Mathias Hangala
Data from a recent World Economic Forum (WEF) report indicates that the recently concluded United Nations Climate Change Conference in Brazil resulted in agreements to triple adaptation financing for developing countries.
The new target aims to raise adaptation funding to US$120 billion per year, as part of the US$300 billion per year climate finance goal known as the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG), adopted at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan (11-22 November 2024).
While parties agreed on adaptation funding, indicators for the global goal on adaptation, and just transition measures, no formal agreements were reached on fossil-fuel phase-down or deforestation roadmaps.
The report noted that although the new adaptation target sends a political signal, it lacks a defined baseline and remains well below the actual needs of developing countries.
This year’s meeting also sought to advance the global goal on adaptation by adopting a list of 59 indicators.
The summit, held in Belém, brought together more than 56,000 participants, including world leaders, scientists, private-sector representatives, Indigenous Peoples, and civil society groups.
It also underpinned the central role of healthy ecosystems, land restoration, and Indigenous stewardship, marking the largest gathering of Indigenous representatives in COP history.
According to a report by the Hanns Seidel Foundation, evidence of climate change extends beyond rising surface temperatures, encompassing widespread shifts in precipitation patterns.
Given the natural variability of Namibia’s rainfall, it remains difficult to attribute specific changes directly to climate change. However, available records show that the frequency of droughts and floods has increased by approximately 18% over the past four decades.
The Foundation further noted that delayed rainy seasons, shorter growing periods, rising average seasonal temperatures, increased drought threats, and unusually severe flooding in parts of Namibia provide strong indications of how climate change is shaping the country’s future.
These impacts are already being felt by businesses and the economy as a whole, but the most vulnerable remains communities dependent on natural resources, particularly those engaged in subsistence agriculture.
In July 2025, it was reported that the World Bank Group’s income classifications for the Fiscal Year 2026 (1 July 2025 – 30 June 2026) have reclassified Namibia from an upper-middle-income to a lower-middle-income country. Namibia was the only country to be downgraded in the update this year.
The reclassification comes despite the economy having grown by 3.7% in 2024, a slight slowdown of 0.7 percentage points from 2023.
According to the World Bank, inflation (based on the GDP deflator) eased from 6.6% in 2023 to 3.3% in 2024.
The WEF report added that one of the main contributors to slower GDP growth was a sharp decline in the mining and quarrying sector, where growth fell from +19.3% in 2023 to -1.2% in 2024, mainly due to weak demand for diamonds.
