Assessing the alignment of national-level adaptation plans to the Paris Agreement

Abstract

The Paris Agreement commits state parties to a global adaptation goal and the inclusion of adaptation into their National Communications. This requires national level planning, monitoring and reporting and methods for effective global-scale adaptation tracking. However, unlike mitigation, where clear targets and goals have been agreed, adaptation is a process with varied and changing goals and risk context. Assessing adaptation plans and strategies can provide valuable insights into ongoing adaptation policy, because the plans give good indications of priorities and institutional thinking. To assess how adaptation planning aligns to the Paris Agreement, this paper used Article 7 of the agreement to develop criteria and applied these to assess national adaptation plans and strategies available in English from 36 least developed, 8 developing and 10 developed countries. The results suggest that adaptation planning aligned to the Paris Agreement can help bring a different focus to development pathways that promotes synergies rather than trade-offs between environmental, social and economic goals. Importantly, tracking adaptation planning can help ensure the continued mobilisation of the parties, guide adaptation planning nationally and locally, and support global-scale consistency in planning and action.