Communicating progress in national and global adaptation to climate change

The Paris Agreement, adopted by the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), reinforces the international framework for adaptation action by establishing a global adaptation goal. Under the Paris Agreement, countries have also agreed to an enhanced transparency framework for action, which includes adaptation. The Agreement also requests each Party to submit and update an “adaptation communication” as appropriate. This paper explores what elements of countries’ adaptation responses and progress could be reported under the Paris Agreement so as to better communicate efforts towards enhanced adaptation and resilience. The paper also highlights the potential benefits both at a national and an international level from identifying and collating adaptation-related information. Finally the paper outlines a possible structure of an adaptation communication, and identifies options and associated information needs for the adaptation-related components of the global stocktake agreed to in the Paris Agreement.