Countries adapting too slowly to climate breakdown, UN warns

Report says not enough funding is being made available to deal with effects of extreme weather

Millions of people around the world are facing disaster from flood, droughts, heatwaves and other extreme weather, as governments fail to take the measures needed to adapt to the impacts of climate breakdown, the UN has warned.

Nearly three-quarters of countries around the world have recognised the need to plan for the effects of global heating, but few of those plans are adequate to the rising threat, and little funding has been made available to put them into force, according to the UN environment programme's Adaptation report 2020, published on Thursday.