Countries reached a last-minute compromise deal on the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) at the Bonn climate talks on Thursday night, papering over their differences on how progress to adapt to climate change should be measured, as a fast-warming world increases the urgency of such action.
Established under the Paris Agreement a decade ago, the goal is meant to support countries – especially the most climate-vulnerable – to bolster their resilience and preparedness for extreme weather linked to climate change, from deadly floods and heatwaves to droughts. Where the financing should come from is a crucial part of it, and tracking the access and quality of this finance with yardsticks is another.
But discussions on choosing a wider set of metrics for the GGA almost collapsed at Bonn due to disagreements over how the funding of adaptation support will be measured to ensure developed countries are meeting their obligations to developing nations.
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Observers told Climate Home News that developing countries wanted clear language outlining developed countries’ responsibility to provide finance, as enshrined in the Paris Agreement. They said measuring adaptation progress must include indicators to track whether developed countries are meeting their responsibilities to provide the “means of implementation” (MoI) in UN jargon.
But developed countries resisted, instead proposing a broader definition of adaptation finance, allowing, for instance, developing country budgets to count, talks observer Imane Saidi of Morocco-based think-tank IMAL Initiative for Climate and Development.
But after more than six hours of deadlock that ran late into the night, negotiators found a compromise.
The final text, which lays out guidance to experts working to refine a list of no more than 100 adaptation indicators, includes adaptation finance under the so-called means of implementation (MoI) – but does not say who should provide it or who should receive it. It refers only to “parties”, wording that some observers said reflected a deliberate move by developed countries to dodge their responsibilities under the Paris Agreement.
“It’s good news that the MoI indicators must align with the Paris Agreement. But again, it says ‘to help parties’, not ‘developing country parties’. So it’s a compromise,” Saidi said.
Pooja Dave of Climate Action Network International (CAN-I) said that while the text contains language that developing countries wanted, “we live to fight another day” – suggesting more wrangling lies ahead.
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