New York, NY, November 10, 2025 — As COP30 convenes under the Brazilian presidency’s call to “move from negotiation to delivery,” the International Rescue Committee (IRC) urges global leaders to prioritize the needs of crisis-affected communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis. Despite bearing the brunt of climate shocks, these communities remain underserved by global adaptation efforts—leaving millions at risk.
The climate crisis is concentrated where aid is shrinking. Seventeen conflict-affected and climate-vulnerable countries—home to just over 10% of the global population—account for 70% of people in humanitarian need, 70% of those facing crisis levels of food insecurity, and 44% of people living in extreme poverty, a figure projected to rise to 65% by 2050. Despite facing the most severe and overlapping risks, these countries receive only 12% of adaptation finance distributed to developing countries and have been disproportionately impacted by recent aid cuts. Without urgent course correction, the climate crisis in these regions could trigger a full-scale development collapse.
The impact of climate change expands to health. As a threat multiplier, climate change is increasing the spread of infectious diseases, disrupting water and food systems, and exacerbating hunger and malnutrition. Over half of all infectious diseases are now aggravated by climate change, and 75% of natural disasters are water-related, including floods and droughts. Fragile and conflict-affected settings are hit hardest, accounting for over 70% of epidemic-prone disease cases. At the same time, crop failures, livestock losses, and food price spikes linked to climate extremes drive hunger and acute malnutrition—especially among children under five and pregnant or lactating mothers. As participants convene on the Thematic Days focused on Water, Health and Food Systems, IRC urges a practical focus and concrete investments in fragile and conflict settings.
IRC and our partners are responding with integrated approaches that tackle infectious disease, water insecurity and hunger where it matters most- including by leveraging AI-powered tools for early detection of mpox and other emerging zoonoses and scaling climate-resilient water, sanitation and hygieneWASH services to prevent waterborne disease spread. The IRC is also investigating the application of anticipatory action to reduce food insecurity and prevent surges in climate-sensitive diseases before floods and droughts- to prevent tomorrow’s disasters today.
At COP30, IRC urges negotiators to:
- Prioritize flexible, grant-based climate adaptation finance for crisis-affected contexts; Grant-based finance is essential to prevent already debt-burdened and conflict-affected countries from taking on additional loans to respond to a crisis they did not cause. Every dollar invested in prevention and adaptation can save up to 15 in post-disaster recovery, making this the most cost-effective and humane approach.
- Agree on a new ambitious adaptation finance goal that explicitly recognizes the disproportionate impacts of climate change on conflict-affected populations, with targeted commitments for countries at the epicenter of crisis. The IRC calls for these countries to receive at least 19% of all adaptation finance committed to developing nations by 2030.
- Scale anticipatory action, such as IRC’s “Follow the Forecasts” model, to reduce disaster impacts before they escalate. Anticipatory finance enables early interventions—like cash transfers, early warnings, and drought response—based on forecasted climate hazards, dramatically reducing humanitarian costs and losses. Yet fragile and conflict-affected states currently receive ten times less pre-arranged finance per capita than other countries, a gap that must be urgently closed.
Invest in community-led, integrated and conflict-sensitive resilience to ensure adaptation efforts are inclusive, effective, and sustainable. Locally-designed and delivered climate solutions, like those implemented by IRC and our partners in Somalia and Syria, are more adaptable to volatile conditions and promote social cohesion in divided communities