In closely listening to Parties’ discussion of adaptation communication under the APA, ECO thinks that adaptation communications are a key contributor to understanding and assessing progress—or lack thereof—towards the global goal on adaptation.
It would be helpful to develop guidance for streamlined communications to assist developing countries in managing their adaptation planning, monitoring challenges and reporting requirements. This should take into account the different roles of NDCs (forward looking), NAPs (as NDC implementation roadmaps) and national communications (backward looking) as well as synergies with the SDGs and the Sendai Framework on Disaster Risk Reduction, where appropriate.
Given that the Paris Agreement includes key adaptation principles (Art. 7.5), countries should provide information on how they plan to apply these principles. This can facilitate learning across borders.
ECO thinks that addressing adaptation communications in a focused manner, as is currently happening in the APA under item 4, is an adequate approach that avoids a mix-up with the discussion about mitigation communication guidance. This promotes adaptation communication as independent and equally important.
Finally, it is legitimate for countries to use their NDCs on support needs to build sufficient adaptive capacity in light of expected levels of global warming. This could inform the global stocktake and other discussions on means of implementation, and open ways towards achieving sustainable development despite climate change impacts.