The Adaptation Private Sector Initiative aims to catalyze the involvement of the private sector in the wider adaptation community. The unique expertise of the private sector, its capacity to innovate and produce new technologies for adaptation, and its financial leverage can form an important part in the multi-sectoral partnership that is required between governmental, private and non-governmental actors.

Impacts of climate change will be felt the most strongly in developing countries, which will need investments between 26 to 87 billion USD annually in order to avoid an additional burden to fall on their already strained development efforts. On a global scale, annual investments between 49 and 171 billion USD will be required (FCCC/TP/2008/7).

Led by governments, these investments will represent a significant business opportunity.

While government leadership on adaptation is emerging, much of the private sector has to date been standing on the sidelines, awaiting a strong policy framework to be put in place. Even though their efforts are often times not framed as adaptation, a significant number of companies undertake actions that enhance adaptive capacity and expand the coping range of communities; efforts by these companies are described in here. Science has provided the international community with the knowledge needed to shield the most vulnerable groups of people from the severe impacts of climate change. Business can build on and complement the efforts of the public sector in order to help enable a strong and effective response.

This initiative provides a platform for business to further engage with adaptation in order to address three threads of work:

1. The contribution that the Private Sector is making and can make to adaptation, including in the most vulnerable countries in particular Small Island Developing States and Least Developed Countries.
2. The contribution international organizations and governments can make to the adaptation of affected businesses, in line with their respective mandates and objectives.
3. The strategies that should be put in place by business in ensuring that their own adaptation efforts are sustainable in the spirit of the principles of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).