COP 26 established a comprehensive two-year Glasgow–Sharm el-Sheikh work programme on the global goal on adaptation (2022-2023). The implementation of the work programme was to start immediately after the third session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (decision 7/CMA.3). An overview of the mandated work can be found in the info box at the right-hand side of this page.

The work programme will be carried out jointly by the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice and the Subsidiary Body for Implementation with contributions from the current and incoming Presidencies of the Conference of the Parties, the Adaptation Committee, Working Group II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, as appropriate, and other relevant constituted bodies and experts.

Four workshops should be conducted per year, with the support of the secretariat and under the guidance of the Chairs of the subsidiary bodies, under the work programme, namely two virtual intersessional workshops and two workshops in conjunction with the sessions of the subsidiary bodies, starting at their fifty-sixth sessions.

In addition, the Maldives offered to host an in-person launch workshop for the established work programme, to serve as a science-policy interface for initial information exchange at the outset of the work programme. Furthermore, Egypt, recognizing the importance of the work under the work programme also offered to host an in-person workshop.

Background on the Global Goal on Adaptation

Article 7 of the Paris Agreement established the global goal on adaptation of “enhancing adaptive capacity, strengthening resilience and reducing vulnerability to climate change, with a view to contributing to sustainable development and ensuring an adequate response in the context of the temperature goal” (Art. 7, para. 1) of “[h]olding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels (Art. 2, para 2(a)).

The global goal on adaptation features three core components: enhancing adaptive capacity, strengthening resilience, and reducing vulnerability to climate change. These three components are grounded in the aim of contributing to sustainable development and ensuring an adequate adaptation response in the context of the temperature goal referred to in Article 2 of the Paris Agreement.

For additional information on the background in a timeline fashion, please click here>>.