This Wednesday, UN Environment launched its third Adaptation Gap Report, which focuses on global assessment. The report puts a much needed spotlight on the (perhaps conveniently forgotten) Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) of enhancing adaptive capacity, strengthening resilience, and reducing vulnerability to climate change, which is part of the Paris Agreement. The GGA not only aims to contribute to sustainable development, but also to ensure an adequate adaptation response globally to climate change, in the context of the temperature goal referred to in Article 2 of the Paris Agreement.
ECO would like to remind Parties that no substantive work has been undertaken to unpack its elements or operationalize the GGA since the adoption of the Paris Agreement.
The UN Environment report was released on the heels of its latest Emissions Gap Report, which warns that current mitigation pledges point towards a likely temperature increase of around 3 °C in 2100. Last year, the same agency published the landmark Adaptation Finance Gap Report, which brought to light that the costs of adaptation in developing countries could range from US$ 140 billion to US$ 300 billion US dollars per year by 2030.
To state the obvious, we not only have to urgently strengthen mitigation ambition but also scale up adaptation actions to minimize loss and damage. The report is a useful input for the negotiators to explore key opportunities and challenges associated with assessing progress on adaptation at the global level. Parties must consider the report and start discussions on assessing collective progress and operationalizing the GGA. This will help synthesize national adaptation planning and reporting.
