Despite the continued rise in temperatures, record-breaking heatwaves, and the devastating droughts, fires and floods around the world, adaptation to climate change is not happening at the speed and scale needed to protect humans, nature and livelihoods. The 2022 IPCC 6th Assessment and the 2023 UN Environment Programme Adaptation Gap reports warned that the adaptation finance gap is widening and that the pace of planning and implementation of adaptation efforts must accelerate in light of future expected climate impacts.
There are, however, encouraging signs that momentum is building. The 2023 United Arab Emirates Framework for Global Climate Resilience reflects the international community’s intention to strengthen adaptation action, in line with what the Paris Agreement set out to do. The Framework’s establishment of global objectives and targets to guide adaptation efforts in all countries promises to be a step-change. At the national level, too, countries need to better understand whether they are advancing at the pace needed to build climate resilience and make informed decisions on how to bridge adaptation gaps effectively. Being able to demonstrate tangible adaptation progress will increase transparency and accountability and may also help to give adaptation the political momentum it has long needed.
This report contributes to ongoing discussions on measuring adaptation progress at the national level, by taking stock of how OECD member countries, and several partner countries, are advancing with measurement and monitoring. While it highlights that much work still remains to be done to demonstrate progress comprehensively, the good news is that all OECD countries have adopted national adaptation policies and most have set up mechanisms to measure their implementation progress at sectoral and subnational levels. However, a varied set of indicators is needed to grasp the diverse sources and drivers of climate risks and impacts, as well as to reflect progress appropriately. The data requirements are significant, and include complex scientific information on hazards, as well as a diversity of demographic, economic and ecosystem data, to name just a few. Harmonising and aggregating information from different data owners and levels is particularly challenging, as is demonstrating clear links between actions and climate change resilience building.
This OECD report provides a stocktake of country efforts and reflects OECD members’ strong interest in developing and using indicators to measure their climate adaptation progress. The OECD is taking forward the results of this work to develop thematic adaptation indicators, in support of international discussions on the Global Goal on Adaptation. Through this work, the OECD will continue to assist governments in designing measurement frameworks to strengthen the implementation of their adaptation plans. I hope the findings in this report will serve as a reference for policy makers in meeting this challenge.
Jo Tyndall
Director, Environment Directorate, OECD