To meet the Paris Agreement’s long-term goals, it is crucial that developed countries support developing countries in achieving their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and mobilizing the required climate finance.

This paper aims to support trade negotiators in leveraging trade for climate change adaptation and to explore the critical role National Adaptation Plan (NAP) processes can play in this regard.

Developing countries have experienced growing structural weaknesses over the last decade. COVID-19 and climate change have further aggravated these, worsening poverty and inequality, and starkly exposing the interdependence between people, the planet, and the economy.

The world needs more effective multilateral coordination, without which recovery efforts in advanced countries will damage development prospects in the South and amplify existing inequalities, says UNCTAD’s Trade and Development Report 2021.