The session was hosted by the UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), which is launching LoCAL+, the next generation of its mechanism for channelling adaptation finance to local governments in least developed countries and small island states. With public budgets stretched – “limited fiscal space”, as moderator Laura Munoz Perez of UNCDF put it – the new model adds a market finance window to bring in private investors.
The consequences are local
Manjeet Dhakal, Director of Climate Analytics South Asia and lead advisor to the LDC Chair, pointed to the recent disaster in Nepal, where the flood wave was so high and the destruction so vast that the country is still struggling to describe its magnitude. As temperatures rise, so will the scale and the consequences.
“Climate is a global challenge, but the consequences are local,” Dhakal said. For many countries, adaptation is about protecting lives, but also economies. The question is how to get capacity – for risk assessment and for support – down to the local level.
Edward Maru, Deputy Director of the Solomon Islands Meteorological Service, described a country with no snow or ice that is nonetheless directly affected by the cryosphere through sea level rise. With the population living along the coast, the impacts are felt now, not in the future.
“It is not time for more dialogue. We need action and implementation,” Maru said. Communities are not waiting for support: they are protecting the coastline, harvesting rainwater and restoring mangroves.
Research that is transferable
Mona Mølnvik, Vice President Research at SINTEF Energi, said Norway is seeing the largest climate change in its history as snow and ice melt on Svalbard, and that what happened in Nepal affects Norway too. SINTEF and NTNU have worked with Nepal for many years on hydropower, including training PhD candidates from Kathmandu University in Trondheim.
“We feel with you, and we believe there are things we can do together to identify early warning systems and reduce the consequences if it happens again,” Mølnvik said.
SINTEF does its research together with industry, in line with political ambitions, and much of its expertise is transferable: satellite data systems, mountain monitoring and big data can be used to detect changes in nature and make warning systems work. High-tech solutions should be developed hand in hand with local solutions, she said – while stressing that adaptation is no substitute for cutting emissions to get closer to 1.5 °C.
Her main message was about how research is done.
“When we do research together with communities, we get closer to what is actually needed, and the money is used more effectively. It is not enough to talk together – we have to work together. That is impactful, knowledge flows in every direction, and it strengthens the value of every krone set aside for this,” Mølnvik said.
“We are on the same team”
Solomon Islands and Nepal are living with climate change here and now, on a scale Norway is not. Reflecting on the session afterwards, Mølnvik said the difference does not change the task.
“As part of humanity, we are on the same team. This is a call to action – the cost of doing nothing far exceeds the cost of acting. The question is who pays. And this session showed that right now, it is Solomon Islands and Nepal,” she said.
About the event
“Innovative and private sector finance for adaptation and DRR in mountain and coastal regions”, Cryosphere Pavilion, COP31, 11 November 2026. Hosted by UNCDF. Moderator: Laura Munoz Perez, Regional Team Lead West Africa & Caribbean, UNCDF. Panel: Manjeet Dhakal (Climate Analytics South Asia / LDC Chair advisor, Nepal), Edward Maru (Solomon Islands Meteorological Service), Mona Mølnvik (Vice President Research, SINTEF Energi).
The session took place the week after UNEP and ICCI released the report Overshoot and the Cryosphere: Averting Global Meltdown, which warns that even a temporary overshoot of 1.5 °C will cause ice loss lasting for centuries, and that temperatures must be brought back down – preferably to 1 °C – to limit the damage.
