Key COP document calls for progress in adapting to climate change by 2030

Last Updated12/12/2023

By 2025, all countries must have in place a detailed plan to adapt to the current and future impacts of climate change in their countries.
This must demonstrate progress in implementing such a plan by 2030.

The Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) document is expected to be part of the agreement when the UN’s COP-28 climate summit concludes in Dubai.
Much of the focus at the annual talks is on
- ‘Mitigation’,
- Getting countries to commit to time-bound plans to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions which cause climate change,
- Emphasis on the Global Stocktake process.

This approach to push countries to take the steps necessary to cope with the current and future impacts of a changing climate.
Global temperatures have already risen 1.1 degrees C since pre-industrial times
They need to be brought in their wake and accelerated in climate-related disasters.
‘Adaptation’ refers to the adjustments in ecological, social or economic systems that countries must make in response to these, and other anticipated climate effects.
- These actions are country-specific.
They can range from
- Building flood defences,
- Setting up early warning systems for cyclones,
- Switching to drought-resistant crops,
- Redesigning communication systems
- Business operations
- Government policies

At COP 21 in Paris, negotiators decided that the GGA was necessary to get all countries on board a common framework for adaptation.
Eight workshops were held after the last COP in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt where quantitative targets were decided.
- To adverse impacts of climate change by at least 50% by 2030
- By at least 90% by 2050”
- Achieving100% coverage of multi-hazard early warning systems, climate information services and response systems by 2027”

Just as billions and trillions of dollars are needed for mitigation,
adaptation too is expected to require developed countries to invest trillions of dollars in developing countries and island states,
developing countries and island states, are most at risk from climate hazards.
Only a fraction of what is required has made its way to where it is required.

India had formally conveyed to the United Nations that it was meeting most of its adaptation expenses with its own money.
“The total adaptation relevant expenditure was 5.6% of the GDP in 2021-2022, growing from a share of 3.7% in 2015-16.
There is a significant gap in adaptation resources which cannot be met only through governmental resources.
Significant contributions need to be channelized through bilateral and multilateral public finance and private investments

There are no clearly defined targets, no clear definition of a framework, lots of very general exhortations, no outcome targets
The developed countries do not do anything for the adaptation agenda for developing countries and this is disappointing.
Out of $1.27 trillion in climate finance flows in 2021-22, only $63 billion is allocated for adaptation.
This is out of the framework of the the National Adaptation Fund for Climate Change