It comes one week ahead of the Durban climate change conference where nearly 200 governments will meet to negotiate further action to address climate change.
The paper analyses the five key promises rich countries have already made but finds these nations have yet to show how they can meet these commitments.
In 2009, developed nations promised US$30 billion between 2010 and 2012, and US$100 billion a year by 2020 to enable developing nations to adapt to climate change and reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases.
At last year's UN climate change conference in Cancun, nations reiterated these pledges and specified that funding for adaptation should be adequate, fairly shared between donors, balanced with funding for mitigation, targeted on a needs basis, and governed well.
However, the new analysis shows that these promises are not being met - and these means poor countries will find it harder to adapt to climate change.
The briefing says negotiators who gather in Durban next week can correct this situation with three ways:
"Money has yet to flow to meet even the most urgent adaptation needs of the Least Developed Countries," says author David Ciplet of Brown University in the United States. "Without adequate and predictable funding, developing countries most vulnerable to climate change cannot respond effectively. All of the talk about adaptation in Cancun will mean little unless reliable funding sources are established in Durban."
