COP28 releases document to guide adaptation efforts

Dubai: Just two days before the UN climate talks here are scheduled to end, negotiators on Sunday released a draft document to guide countries' efforts to adapt to climate change and monitor collective progress. However, it falls short of expectations.

The Paris Agreement in 2015 introduced the concept of a Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA), a parallel to the global mitigation goal aimed at limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius as compared to pre-industrial (1850-1900) levels.

Unlike mitigation, where progress can be tracked using a single metric, adaptation requires a more complex approach.

The Glasgow-Sharm El-Sheikh Work Programme on the Global Goal on Adaptation, initiated at COP26 in Egypt, started a series of workshops and negotiations to establish an operational framework for the GGA at COP28.

Though the document acknowledged that the finance required for adaptation "remains insufficient" and the gap between the funds available and the actual financial support needed is "widening", it doesn't quantify anything.

According to a UN report released last month, developing countries require $215-387 billion annually for climate adaptation, but they are only receiving about $21 billion.

This financial shortfall has led to frustration among poorer and developing nations most affected by climate change.

Zambia's Environment Minister Collins Nvozu, speaking on behalf of the African group, on Saturday said adaptation is a matter of survival for Africa and an agreement on a global goal of adaptation would be the most important outcome for Africa from COP28.

"Droughts, storms, and rising seas threaten our lives and livelihoods. The Adaptation Gap Report has revealed that the gap is much larger than previously thought. We must take immediate steps to close the adaptation gap," he said.

"Main Nahin, Hum" (We, Not Me) is the likely slogan that the opposition parties would work on to counter Modi. Sources add that the opposition alliance of the INDIA bloc is likely to take forward the issues of caste census, legal guarantee to MSP and social security for workers. "Evolving the core positive agenda for the INDIA bloc is the biggest challenge for the Opposition parties that would help it take on the BJP," the leader said.