Abstract

The Adaptation Committee (AC) is the global voice on adaptation, working to drive forward coherent UNFCCC action on adaptation around the world by providing expert guidance, enhancing outreach, and supporting the implementation of the Paris Agreement by addressing crucial adaptation issues.

The global goal on adaptation is one such crucial issue. Contained in Article 7.1 of the Paris Agreement, the global goal on adaptation aims at enhancing adaptive capacity, strengthening resilience and reducing vulnerability to climate change, with a view to contributing to sustainable development and ensuring an adequate adaptation response in the context of the Agreement’s temperature goal of limiting warming to well below 2 or 1.5 °C.

Periodically reviewing progress towards this goal is critical to ensure that the world is on track to achieve its objective. In 2019, the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA) requested the AC to consider approaches to reviewing the overall progress made in achieving the global goal on adaptation and to reflect the outcome of this consideration in its 2021 annual report. This technical paper is a central component of our response to this mandate, and it represents close to two years of our work. 

The technical paper sheds light on the variety of approaches that may be applied – drawing from academic and grey literatures, as well as real-world examples from different jurisdictions and governance levels – and their associated advantages, challenges, and limitations. It does not recommend a particular approach or set of approaches for reviewing overall progress towards the global goal on adaptation, as our extensive research and deliberations on this issue did not point to an optimal approach or set of approaches that are clearly preferable to the alternatives. Rather, it aims to provide a fair and honest assessment of where we currently stand in relation to our ability to conduct a robust and meaningful review of overall progress towards the global goal on adaptation.