The U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change has created an adaptation committee that will help oversee rich countries’ contributions to the world’s most vulnerable nations.

But marshaling a global approach to what is often a local problem can be difficult. Rockefeller Foundation president Judith Rodin, whose group has spent more than $90 million on such projects in 10 Asian cities, said one concern is that the money won’t filter down quickly enough to local leaders who “know what they need” when it comes to coping with such problems as rising sea levels and more frequent heat waves.