The Adaptation Working Group of the independent Global Stocktake (iGST)

The Global Stocktake (GST) is a process that periodically takes stock of collective progress toward the long-term goals established by the Paris Agreement. The Independent Global Stocktake (iGST) aligns the independent community to increase the accuracy, transparency, accountability, and relevance of the official GST process that empowers countries to take greater climate action. iGST  includes four thematic working groups on adaptation, mitigation, finance and equity; and three regional civil society hubs: Latin America and the Caribbean, West Africa and Southeast Asia. UNEP Copenhagen Climate Centre co-chairs the iGST Adaptation Working Group created in 2019.

The Paris Agreement initiates the GST for which a critical challenge is to achieve a convergence towards a common understanding of core adaptation issues. Currently the various submissions to UNFCCC on adaptation are insufficient to ensure a consistent and transparent stocktake. To contribute to the GST’s aim of assessing progress towards the GGA, a focus on the transparency on adaptation reporting is relevant and necessary. By initiating and facilitating a global discussion on this perspective, the iGST could add significantly value towards the GST.

AWG’s 2022 program will focus on enhanced reporting and transparency of climate resilience and adaptation, taking the perspective of adequacy and effectiveness of adaptation actions on national level and contributing to methodology development in assessing adaptation progress towards GGA. Understanding what adequacy and effectiveness of adaptation mean for the GST will be realised through two pathways:

• Theoretically, exploring how to interpret and assess the two concepts in the context of GST. This will involve a discussion through series of perspective papers by independent researchers globally
• Empirically, investigating what are being reported on country level to address the two concepts. Two case studies on national level will be included: Ghana and Nigeria
  

  Key publications

• 2020: Understanding adaptation in the Global Stocktake
• 2021: Private Sector Adaptation Reporting as a Source of Input to the Global Stocktake
• 2022: To be published in December