Setting Adaptation Targets: India’s Strategic Approach to GGA Indicators

As countries gear up for the COP 30 negotiations in Belém, one of the most anticipated discussions would be centred around the finalisation of the indicators for the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA). What started off as an exhaustive pool of close to 10,000 indicators has iteratively been pruned down to a list of 100, spread across both thematic and dimensional targets as listed in paras 9–10 under Decision 2/CMA 5. Representing a monumental step towards operationalising the United Arab Emirates (UAE)-Belem Work Programme, what shape the indicator list ends up taking will determine not only the effectiveness of GGA assessments globally, but also the flexibility of Parties in aligning indicators with national circumstances and adaptation priorities.

To begin with, for finalising indicators, India could consider categorising them into three groups, namely, positive, flexible, and negative. The first category would include indicators that are already part of existing reporting mechanisms under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) or integrated within domestic policies and programmes. Similarly, the negative list may comprise indicators that would elicit additional efforts for data collection, processing and analysis or may weaken the country’s negotiation stance. And finally, the flexible category, having indicator options that require certain refinement or may not be a hundred percent match to existing data. This would help create a prioritised list on which initial work can begin. [Read more…]