CLIMATE ADAPTATION, THE GLOBAL GOAL TOWARDS COP28 IN DUBAI
Intermediate negotiations officially began yesterday, but some discussion groups started working already a few days ago. This is the case of the Glasgow-Sharm el-Sheikh work program group for the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) which met on 4 and 5 June in Bonn for its sixth session.
The GGA was created on the basis of Article 7.1 of the Paris Agreement with the aim of strengthening the global response to climate change, enhancing adaptation capacity, promoting climate resilience and minimizing the vulnerability of countries most at risk. However, adaptation policies are mainly developed through the individual activities carried out by each country with different strategies for planning and implementation, which makes it difficult to establish a common goal for all.
To overcome this obstacle, a two-year work program called Glasgow – Sharm el-Sheikh was launched during COP26 in Glasgow. This program included the creation of eight workshops to reach an agreement on the structure of the GGA, establishing methodologies, indicators, metrics and data sources to globally assess progress on adaptation to climate change. COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh then welcomed the progress made in the first year, and agreed to make the GGA operational for the next COP28 in Dubai.
The working groups generally have a very technical approach, aimed at establishing the key elements that can help to collect and categorize adaptation progress towards the GGA. Three sessions were held in Bonn during these two days.
The first one addressed the problem of goal definition processes, methodologies and indicators suitable for standardizing the identification of adaptation activities. The second session explored possible approaches to enhance efforts to integrate adaptation into prioritized targets on a national level. The last session analyzed proposals to improve and monitor adaptation activities.
This information, in turn, will provide the basis for the design of a comprehensive monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) system for adaptation within the framework of the GGA. With the Bonn sessions, the path towards achieving the Global Goal on Adaptation is progressing, aiming at coordinating all efforts for a comprehensive approach to current adaptation challenges. In view of Dubai, however, the work is not finished.
Article by Camilla Pollera, Co-coordinator of the Climate and Rights section