Abstract

The Adaptation Committee is delighted by the opportunity to provide this synthesis report as an input to the technical assessment component of the first global stocktake. The Adaptation Committee considers the global stocktake as a major opportunity for collective learning from past adaptation efforts and for informing future approaches to address the climate change challenge.

The global stocktake takes place at an important juncture at which the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Working Group II has informed the world that there is no time to lose for moving from adaptation planning to the implementation of action given that the window of opportunity for sustainable development for all is closing rapidly.

During the past decade adaptation has gained unprecedented importance due to the increasing levels of global greenhouse gas emissions and concomitant rises in climate impacts. In response, numerous adaptation approaches, activities and arrangements have evolved around the world and at all levels. It is now time for harvesting the knowledge and experience gained from these approaches, activities and arrangements and to identify the triggers that can unleash the urgent further adaptation action that is required in the decisive decade ahead. It is also time for defragmenting adaptation action and support around the globe and to join forces and resources in this collective endeavour.

In its capacity as the overall advisory body on adaptation under the Convention and the Paris Agreement and through its technical work as well as the interaction with Parties and many other adaptation stakeholders the Adaptation Committee has collected and created, over the years, a large body of knowledge and experience in many areas of adaptation. It has made every effort to synthesize this body of knowledge and experience in this report and to allow a glance into the future on how further action and support on adaptation as well as international cooperation might be enhanced.

The Adaptation Committee hopes that this report, in conjunction with the other synthesis reports prepared as inputs for the first global stocktake, provides a sound basis for assessing present status and progress towards achieving the purpose and long-term goals of the Paris Agreement and for facilitating learning among Parties that can enhance their collective ambition towards these goals.