This article develops a framework of procedural and distributive justice specifically tailored to the international-level funding of adaptation based on the assumptions that the ethical contents of such funding should consist of a fair process which involves all relevant parties, that adaptation funds should be raised according to the responsibility for climate impacts, and that the funds raised should be allocated by putting the most vulnerable first. After underlining the usefulness and possibilities of an ethical approach to climate adaptation finance, the author:

explores and justifies principles of procedural and distributive justice, and on their basis advances fairness and equity criteria that serve as benchmarks for assessing the ethical contents of international adaptation funding
uses the article's fairness and equity criteria to evaluate the procedural and distributive justness of some climate adaptation finance architectures, in order to test the robustness and investigative potential of the framework of justice developed.