Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Correspondence
  • Published:

Assessing adaptation progress for the global stocktake

Nature Climate Change volume 13, pages 413–414 (2023)Cite this article

Subjects

Access through your institution
Buy or subscribe

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) global stocktake tracks progress towards achieving the three global goals of the Paris Agreement — mitigation, adaptation and support. The global goal on adaptation is to enhance adaptive capacity, strengthen resilience and reduce vulnerability to climate change, with a view to contributing to sustainable development and ensuring an adequate adaptation response. Attempts at demonstrating progress towards this imprecisely worded goal have revealed “methodological, empirical, conceptual and political challenges” that the 2021–2023 Glasgow–Sharm el-Sheikh work programme aims to address1.

Adaptation in developing countries often occurs as discrete interventions via projects financed by public sources, including multilateral funds and bilateral donors. Evaluating these interventions could be an important contribution to the global stocktake2, which includes a review of the adequacy and effectiveness of adaptation action and support. However, lack of reporting and evaluation rigour hinders the assessment of adaptation effectiveness. We identify four challenges related to the availability and quality of evidence for assessing adaptation progress, and propose solutions (Table 1).

Table 1 Challenges and solutions for assessing adaptation progress
Full size table

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Access through your institution

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Decision 7/CMA.3: Glasgow–Sharm el-Sheikh work programme on the global goal on adaptation. In Report of the Conference of the Parties Serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement on Its Third Session, Held in Glasgow from 31 October to 13 November 2021; Addendum Part 2: Action Taken by the Conference of the Parties Serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement at its Third Session FCCC/PA/CMA/2021/10/Add.3 4–6 (UNFCCC, 2021).

  2. Macura, B. et al. Effectiveness of Climate Change Adaptation Interventions in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Impact of Funding Modalities: A Mixed Methods Systematic Review Protocol SEI Working Paper https://doi.org/10.51414/sei2021.021 (Stockholm Environment Institute, 2021).

  3. Weikmans, R., Roberts, J. T., Baum, J., Bustos, M. C. & Durand, A. Dev. Pract. 27, 458–471 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Adaptation Gap Report 2021 The Gathering Storm: Adapting to Climate Change in a Post-pandemic World (United Nations Environment Programme, 2021).

  5. Phillips, D. et al. A Map of Evidence Maps Relating to Sustainable Development in Low- and Middle-income Countries: Evidence Gap Map Report (CEDIL, 2017).

  6. Berrang-Ford, L. et al. Nat. Clim. Change 11, 989–1000 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Dombroski, K. & Do, H. T. Nordia Geographical Publications Yearbook 47, 7–20 (2019).

  8. Eriksen, S. et al. World Dev. 141, 105383 (2021).

  9. Bours, D., McGinn, C. & Pringle, P. Monitoring & Evaluation for Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience: A Synthesis of Tools, Frameworks and Approaches 2nd edn (SEA Change CoP & UKCIP, 2014).

  10. Least Developed Countries Fund: 2020 Program Evaluation (GEF IEO, 2022).

  11. Binet, S. et al. Independent Evaluation of the Adaptation Portfolio and Approach of the Green Climate Fund (Green Climate Fund Independent Evaluation Unit, 2021).

  12. White, H. & Raitzer, D. A. Impact Evaluation of Development Interventions: A Practical Guide (Asian Development Bank, 2017).

Download references

Acknowledgements

This Correspondence is informed by an attempt at assessing the effectiveness of adaptation finance for externally funded projects. Our funding was discontinued in March 2021 as a result of a reduction in the UK’s budget for Official Development Assistance, and therefore the assessment could not be completed.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Stockholm Environment Institute, Stockholm, Sweden

    Nella Canales & Biljana Macura

  2. Stockholm Environment Institute, Bonn, Germany

    Richard J. T. Klein

  3. Stockholm Environment Institute, Oxford, UK

    Inès Bakhtaoui

Authors
  1. Nella Canales
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Richard J. T. Klein
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Inès Bakhtaoui
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Biljana Macura
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Biljana Macura.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Canales, N., Klein, R.J.T., Bakhtaoui, I. et al. Assessing adaptation progress for the global stocktake. Nat. Clim. Chang. 13, 413–414 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01656-x

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01656-x

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing