Global progress on adaptation implementation (Chapter in UNEP’s Adaptation Gap Report 2023)
Where do we stand globally on adaptation? One of UNEP’s annual flagship reports, the Adaptation Gap Report provides a detailed account and is an important input to COP28. It was cited in the outcome of the 1st Global Stocktake under the Paris Agreement (Decision 1/CMA.5) and informed the negotiations on the framework for the Global Goal on Adaptation.
The Grantham Research Institute has been an important contributor to the Adaptation Gap Report. Since 2020, Timo Leiter has been the lead author of the chapter ‘Global progress on adaptation implementation’. This chapter provides an overview of implemented adaptation worldwide, analysing what adaptation actions have been undertaken, for whom, where and against which climate hazards and risks. In 2023, the chapter undertook the first global analysis of Adaptation Communications that Parties submitted to the UNFCCC secretariat.
Key messages from Chapter 3, Global progress on adaptation implementation
- In 2022, new adaptation projects at a combined value of US$559 million in grants from the Adaptation Fund (AF), the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and the Global Environment Facility (the GEF via its Least Developed Countries Fund [LDCF] and Special Climate Change Fund [SCCF]) started implementation. This is 10 per cent higher than the average amount implemented over the preceding five years (2017–2021).
- The average number of new adaptation projects that started under these three multilateral funds plateaued at just under 40 projects per year during the decade 2013–2022. Due to GCF, the average size of grant-funded adaptation projects has increased. Since 2017, an average of 15 per cent of new adaptation projects have grant funding of over US$25 million.
- Over 1,100 implemented adaptation actions are listed by 35 countries in their adaptation communications. However, details are provided for just 670 actions (60 per cent). Of these, almost half were reported as completed and 37 per cent as ongoing. The implementation status of the remaining 17 per cent of actions was unclear based on the information reported.
- Information on the outcomes of implementation was reported for only 6 per cent of the 670 adaptation actions. This finding underscores the continued need for information on results beyond the outputs of adaptation actions, in order to determine their effectiveness.
- More than half (57 per cent) of stand-alone adaptation communications acknowledge that vulnerability differs across demographics, and a majority underscores the imperative of addressing gender inequality. However, only a third of actions indicated that they were targeting vulnerable groups. Of those that did, farmers were the most targeted vulnerable group (46 per cent of actions targeting vulnerable groups), while women, fisherfolk and Indigenous Peoples were targeted marginally.
- Just over half of the actions for which a funding source was reported were funded by domestic sources. For developing (non-Annex I) countries, this proportion was one third. Stand-alone adaptation communications therefore provide a new source of information on domestically funded adaptation implementation that can help recognize adaptation efforts by developing countries.
- Three quarters of the developing (non-Annex I) countries that submitted a stand-alone adaptation communication received support for its compilation, demonstrating the importance of providing adequate support for adaptation reporting, especially for least developed countries (LDCs) and small island developing States (SIDS). This finding is also highly relevant for the development of biennial transparency reports, which are due by the end of 2024.