Global Goal on Adaptation

The Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) was established by Article 7.1 of the Paris Agreement (2015) as a counterpart to the mitigation temperature goal in Article 2. It commits Parties collectively to "enhancing adaptive capacity, strengthening resilience and reducing vulnerability to climate change, with a view to contributing to sustainable development and ensuring an adequate adaptation response in the context of the temperature goal."

Unlike the 1.5°C/2°C mitigation target, the GGA is qualitative rather than numerical, which has made it difficult to track. To operationalise it, COP26 in Glasgow (2021) launched the Glasgow–Sharm el-Sheikh work programme on the GGA, a two-year process to define metrics, methodologies and indicators. At COP28 in Dubai (2023), Parties adopted the UAE Framework for Global Climate Resilience, which set out thematic targets to be achieved by 2030 covering:

• water and sanitation
• food and agriculture
• health
• ecosystems and biodiversity
• infrastructure and human settlements
• poverty eradication and livelihoods
• cultural heritage

The framework also identified dimensions of the adaptation policy cycle — impact and vulnerability assessment, planning, implementation, and monitoring, evaluation and learning — with their own 2030 targets. A subsequent UAE–Belém work programme was launched to develop indicators to measure progress, with the indicator set expected to be finalised at COP30 in Belém.

The GGA is closely tied to debates on adaptation finance, including the COP26 call to at least double adaptation finance from 2019 levels by 2025, and to the Global Stocktake, which assesses collective progress every five years. Developing countries, particularly the Least Developed Countries group and AOSIS, have pushed for stronger means of implementation and clearer accountability, while developed-country Parties have generally resisted prescriptive finance obligations tied to GGA metrics. The goal remains a central, contested element of UNFCCC negotiations.