ENHANCING PRIVATE-SECTOR PARTICIPATION IN CLIMATE ADAPTATION FINANCE

Abstract

This article examines how participation of the private sector can be intensified in climate change adaptation finance in Zimbabwe. It argues that although measures can be implemented in any rural-urban set-up to adapt to climate change, there is need for financial assistance for effective climate change adaptation. This calls for the role of the private sector to close the financial gap in climate change adaptation and what can be done to stimulate these private sectors to participate in climate change adaptation finance. This study is premised on the background that the national government has a role to stimulate and enhance private sector involvement in adaption because the impacts of climate change are devastating the lives of many across the world, especially in developing countries and the adaptation costs will continue to increase with time. Therefore, such countries are facing difficulties in adaptation to climate change hazards, and need the help of human, technical and financial doses from the private sector. The study was mainly a desktop study involving examining literature and documents fetched from Google Scholar, Ebsco and websites with news and related material with case studies involving key informant interviews. For data analysis, the study engaged mainly in textual analysis. From the study, it is revealed that developing countries are financially challenged in their adaptation projects against the ever-increasing climate change hazards and there are barriers to private-sector participation that the national government should be aware of to attract private-sector investment in their countries.