--- title: "As climate shocks intensify, SA pushes for more money to adapt at COP31" description: "With extreme weather events hitting much of the developing world, including South Africa, throughout the year, the government is set on moving beyond mitigation and barreling toward adaptation at this year’s climate talks." type: "NewsArticle" publisher: "Daily Maverick" site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za" section: "MONEY TALKS" author: "Lerato Mutsila" author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/lerato-mutsila/" canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-10-18-as-climate-shocks-intensify-sa-pushes-for-more-money-to-adapt-at-cop31/" published: "2026-10-18T20:40:42" lang: "en-ZA" word_count: 1157 --- # As climate shocks intensify, SA pushes for more money to adapt at COP31 > With extreme weather events hitting much of the developing world, including South Africa, throughout the year, the government is set on moving beyond mitigation and barreling toward adaptation at this year’s climate talks. By Lerato Mutsila · Published 18 October 2026, 22:40 SAST ## Key points - After deadly floods, drought threats and extreme heat, South Africa is taking a sharper adaptation-focused agenda to COP31. - Negotiators will push to triple adaptation finance by 2035, operationalise global adaptation goals and secure stronger loss-and-damage funding. - SA has submitted a $20m bid to restore flood-ravaged Kruger landscapes, but the global loss-and-damage fund can cover only a fraction of developing nations’ needs. - With a 1.5°C overshoot increasingly unavoidable, the summit’s global stocktake will test whether countries can turn climate promises into faster, better-funded action. ## Content Severe climate shocks, record-breaking temperatures and devastating weather events worldwide have marked 2026 as a standout year for extreme climate events globally. South Africa has not been spared. In January, historic floods swept through Limpopo and Mpumalanga, killing at least 30 people, damaging thousands of homes and causing billions of rands in infrastructure damage. Four months later, the Western Cape was hit, causing 11 fatalities, displacing over 200,000 people, and battering the province’s agricultural sector. An unfolding Super El Niño threatens a hotter, drier summer marked by drought, wildfires, water shortages, food insecurity and heat-related illness, placing the responsibility on the government to safeguard residents from a warming world. That is why, as South Africa heads to the 31st United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP31) in November, increased adaptation finance is among the country’s top priorities in the climate negotiations. ### Adaptation and resilience Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Minister David Maynier said that the fact that, at only 4%, Africa’s emissions paled in the face of global greenhouse gas emissions made adaptation and resilience one of the main priorities for South Africa, given the country’s severe experience with storms, floods and drought. Speaking at a national stakeholder consultation on South Africa’s negotiating mandate for COP31 on Friday, 16 October, Maynier said that South Africa’s negotiators would push for a benchmark to triple adaptation finance by 2035, the operationalisation of the global goal on adaptation, and adequate loss and damage funding. ![Carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from burning fossil fuels and industrial processes. This includes emissions from transport, electricity generation, and heating, but not land-use change. (Source: Our World in Data)](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/p-PML6DAgEKmMrT7yy0f5u5DaBI=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/2999/co-emissions-per-capita_434814.png) While the country’s negotiation team will focus heavily on adaptation, South Africa still has a case to answer for regarding the reduction of emissions. Granted, the country’s global emissions sit at 1.1% to 1.14%. However, the nation is[Africa’s biggest emitter](https://ourworldindata.org/profile/co2/south-africa), accounting for roughly 33% to more than 40% of the continent’s total emissions. Maesela Kekana, the DFFE’s deputy director-general responsible for climate change and air quality, and the person who would lead the charge during the negotiations, said that nations had clear directions on what needed to be done on mitigation; however, the same could not be said for adaptation. ![money](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/jL7jImoFXdL00Fg4RkjtypVDGOA=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Day-1-Pic-4.jpg) *Maesela Kekana, the DFFE’s deputy director-general responsible for climate change and air quality. (Photo: Dianah Chiyangwa)* “On adaptation, we don’t really know where we are. Hence this Belém to Addis vision becomes quite important because it deals with key indicators that will tell us exactly how far we are in building resilience.” Established during COP30 in Belém, Brazil, in 2025, the Belém–Addis Vision on Adaptation is a negotiation process intended to help countries put global adaptation goals into practice and measure progress towards them. [CLIMATE TALKS COP30 fails to deliver ambitious action on fossil fuels, adaptation, finance and forests November 24, 2025 ![Image](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/fFUwe6MpOwHJ5TV-gfUEYRHD8Wg=/450x0/smart/file/attachments/2984/Kristin-COPOutcomes_399129_c5b4e49a50ef4c5ab78acdca2cd046e6.jpg)](https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025-11-24-cop30-fails-to-deliver-ambitious-action-n-on-fossil-fuels-adaptation-finance-and/) ### **Loss and Damage fund needs a boost** South Africa is one of 119 countries that have submitted more than 170 funding proposals to the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD). Maynier said that after the floods in January devastated the Kruger National Park and surrounding areas, the country submitted a $20-million proposal to restore the flood-affected and associated conservation landscapes. ![money](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/LcZl7Dg44M9Cdc3EVzLYbyTCisQ=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/Letaba_141764.jpeg) *Floods sweep through Letaba, Kruger National Park, in January 2026. (Photo: SANParks)* While progress has been made with a dedicated FRLD, Kekana said that South Africa sought greater support for the fund, adding that “there’s quite a big gap between what is required to deal with these permanent losses and damages and what is on the table”. The FRLD supports developing countries and communities affected by climate-related disasters; however, the fund faces a massive budget and liquidity shortfall. [Media: "Chart: The climate loss fund has cash to cover just 12% of what developing nations are asking for"](https://charts.dailymaverick.co.za/chart/d0f651b0c5b9e43d32fbf954) Responding to questions from Daily Maverick about the likelihood of South Africa receiving funding, given the sheer volume of requests and the money available in the fund, Maynier said he hoped the proposal would succeed, adding that bilateral talks had already taken place to advocate for it. Kenana said that South Africa’s negotiating team would call for more resources for the fund, but would also seek assistance from other financial institutions outside the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) financial mechanisms, such as the Clean Investment Fund. ![Lerato-DFFEinvestigation-Sasol](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/KFnrakfenEjEwENvtb4qzr6sS7A=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/ED_592344_107185.jpg) *David Maynier. (Photo: Gallo Images / Luba Lesolle)* Dipak Patel, deputy chairperson of the Presidential Climate Commission, said South Africa’s request would prove to be a test for the loss and damage fund. “South Africa should treat this as a test case of what South Africa can actually present \[to the summit\] that would meet or pass muster with respect to what is required. “I see the potential for loss and damage to be extended to climate-impacted events, whether that be severe flooding in Durban or severe warming in other parts of the country. “But let us be aware that in a context where we might not be suffering the most damage, any global fund would have to prioritise on the basis of vulnerability and on the basis of their own socioeconomic position,” Patel said. ![BM-Ed-WeatherWatch](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/2qMXD7G2OZB-2_nLTAQS3X6wBB4=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/RC29YCATRIZB_710596.jpg) *A drone view shows houses flooded after heavy rains in Durban, South Africa, February 20, 2025. (Photo: REUTERS/Rogan Ward)* ### **Nations to take stock on climate action** The second Global Stocktake (GST) will begin during this year’s summit. The process serves as an inventory of the planet, where countries and stakeholders assess where they are succeeding and where they are falling short in meeting the Paris Climate Agreement. The GST, which takes two years to complete, aims to inform the next round of climate action plans (nationally determined contributions, or NDCs). The GST, which takes place every five years, could not come at a more significant time. In September, the United Nations Environment Programme released a report that found a 1.5°C overshoot is now widely unavoidable and would occur within years, bringing more frequent extreme weather events globally. ![ILULISSAT, GREENLAND - JULY 16: Icebergs drift by in Disko Bay on July 16, 2024 at Ilulissat, Greenland. Earlier this year scientists released a study in which they concluded that Greenland’s glaciers, which all descend from the Greenland Ice Sheet, have retreated about 20% more than previously estimated. Of the 200 glaciers included in the study, only one has grown since 1985. Overall, the amount of glacial ice melting globally has increased markedly over the past 30 years as global warming continues to intensify. According to the European Space Agency, the Earth lost 28 trillion tons of ice between 1994 and 2017, enough to cover the entire United Kingdom with an ice sheet 100 meters thick. Since 2017 the rate of ice loss has increased to 1.3 trillion tons annually, up from 0.8 trillion tons in the 1990s. According to the Programme for Monitoring of the Greenland Ice Sheet (PROMICE), the Greenland Ice Sheet has been losing mass continuously since 1996, with an accumulated loss since 1986 approaching 6,000 metric gigatons, or six trillion tons. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/lBpQQaKmXVitDu-4J8HHRvVmvsE=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/GettyImages-2162690208.jpg) *The Greenland ice sheet, facing intensifying global warming, is melting. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)* The report, titled [Limiting Overshoot: Navigating Exceedance of 1.5°C and Pathways Towards Return](https://www.unep.org/en/news-and-stories/press-release/unep-world-set-cross-15degc-global-warming-can-still-limit-adapt-and), found that best-case projections peaked at 1.8°C and others exceeded 2°C, and it proposed an “overshoot, peak and decline” strategy to minimise the risks of extreme weather, ecosystem loss and irreversible tipping points. The strategy, which includes immediate emissions cuts, transformational adaptation and governed carbon dioxide removal, would theoretically bring the world back below 1.5°C warming. ![TEMPERATURE OVERSHOOT: EXCEED AND RETURN TO 1.5°C Decades of insufficient action have locked us into three compounding challenges to limiting temperature overshoot, with an urgent need for action now. (Source: United Nations)](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/ixXppG0BmDiMsQREzSK79WVkfAk=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/2999/Overshoot_signature_figure_1756pxpng_886267.jpeg) According to the UNFCCC, the stocktake can help policymakers and stakeholders strengthen their climate policies and commitments in their next round of NDCs, paving the way for accelerated action. Referring to the stocktake, Maynier said it should assess progress beyond emissions reductions and focus on advancing climate finance, technology transfer, capacity building for developing countries and addressing loss and damage. **DM**