COP28, GLOBAL GOAL ON ADAPTATION: STEPS FORWARD, STEPS BACKWARDS
- Terms and concepts are strengthened in finance, the absence of constraints remains.
- Among the options in the initial text, only the reference to the Paris Convention and Agreement remains, not the reference to common but differentiated responsibilities.
- The reference to the 2 degree temperature goal has been added, as part of the adaptive approaches.
The second draft on the GGA, the Global Goal on Adaptation, was released at COP28: this too, like the first one on Sunday, is a version of the “President’s text”.
On finance, which remains the fundamental point for implementing adaptation policies and practices in reality and had already caused discontent, a strengthening is expected but only conceptual.
Article 23 recognizes that finance, technology transfer and capacity building are considered crucial for the implementation of the GGA framework. The subsequent art.24 underlines the importance of making financial flows consistent and encourages further actions to increase them.
Serious, however, is the elimination of the explicit assurance that adaptation finance should not weigh on the debt situation of developing Countries. In article 27 there is only a reference to a more generic debt sustainability but, in our opinion, the very concept of debt should have disappeared completely.
Article 38 commits to “bridging the adaptation finance gap”, providing that the result of the Global Stocktake must take into account the New Collective Quantified Goal in 2024, in terms of bridging it.
Among the options in the text of the decision on the GGA, only the one with the reference to the Convention and the Paris Agreement remained, while the explicit reference to “common but differentiated responsibilities” has disappeared.
In Article 8, however, it appeared an open reference to the temperature goals foreseen by the Paris Agreement, which therefore must be taken into consideration in the “strengthened efforts” for incremental and transformative adaptations, in light of the best available science. Compared to the first draft, this seems like an important innovation.
Finally, another negative and potentially dangerous aspect is the fact that the deadlines to 2030 have been removed to halve the impacts and risks for infrastructure and human settlements, and to eliminate them completely by 2040.
Article by Paolo Della Ventura, Italian Climate Network delegate in collaboration with Cecilia Consalvo, Italian Climate Network delegate
Cover image: Photo by COP28 / Christopher Pike