The Bonn meet is to end soon; but there is no decision yet about Global Goal on Adaptation

The Bonn meet is to end soon; but there is no decision yet about Global Goal on Adaptation

Subject : Environment

Section: International convention

Context: The informal consultations on the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) have hit major roadblocks even after a decently successful sixth workshop under the Glasgow Sharm El Sheikh (GlaSS) Work Programme for GGA.

Details:

• The GGA is being framed as a global target for countries and communities to aspire and take guidance from, similar to the temperature target of 1.5 degrees Celsius under the 2015 Paris Agreement.

The main contentions within the negotiations for GGA that still remain are:

• Finance for adaptation which has been a sticky issue for many years now and necessitated the developing countries’ demand for the doubling of adaptation finance
• The wider New Collective Quantified Goal which includes finance for mitigation and should include finance for loss and damage as well

Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA):

• Article 7 of the Paris Agreement establishes a Global Goal on Adaptation of “enhancing adaptive capacity, strengthening resilience and reducing vulnerability to climate change”.
• The core components of the goal are interconnected and overlapping.
• Their progress will be assessed every five years under the Paris Agreement’s Article 14, Global Stocktake.
• Under the Global Goal on Adaptation, countries have to develop National Adaptation Plans (NAPS), which would identify activities that need support. These are then recorded in a public registry by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
• The fact is there is no clear definition of what the world means by “adaptation” and perhaps there can never be.
• The Adaptation Gap Report 2020, released by the United Nations Environment Programme (unep) earlier this year, states that the adaptation finance gap is not closing—not by a long shot.
• The Adaptation Fund, which was set up 2001, to fund projects in developing countries was financed with a share of the proceeds from the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), established under the Kyoto Protocol.
• With CDM now dormant and defunct, the fund, though little, continues to be in operation under the Paris Agreement. It’s a game of shells.