Climate change is forcing vulnerable communities in poor countries to adapt to unprecedented climate stress. Rich countries, primarily responsible for creating the problem, must stop harming, by fast cutting their greenhouse-gas emissions, and start helping, by providing finance for adaptation. In developing countries Oxfam estimates that adaptation will cost at least 50bneachyear,andfarmoreifglobalemissionsarenotcutrapidly.Urgentworkisnecessarytogainamoreaccuratepictureofthecoststothepoor.AccordingtoOxfamβ²snewAdaptationFinancingIndex,theUSA,EuropeanUnion,Japan,Canada,andAustraliashouldcontributeover95percentofthefinanceneeded.ThisfinancemustnotbecountedtowardsmeetingtheUNβagreedtargetof0.7percentforaid.Richcountriesareplanningmultiβbilliondollaradaptationmeasuresathome,buttodatetheyhavedeliveredjust48m to international funds for least-developed country adaptation, and have counted it as aid: an unacceptable inequity in global responses to climate change