March Meetings in Paris and Bonn advance indicator development for global adaptation targets 

The assessment of progress towards achieving the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) is gaining concrete form: Two meetings in March 2025 achieved progress on the way to identifying indicators for the global adaptation targets under the UAE-Framework for Global Climate Resilience. The identification of indicators for adaptation progress and climate resilience is now in focus for the period leading up to COP30. 

The Paris Agreement established the Global Goal on Adaptation to increase global adaptive capacities to the effects of climate change. To further advance this goal and adaptation ambitions of countries, Parties in 2023 identified priorities and set global adaptation targets for 2030 and beyond.  

With the UAE-Belém Work Programme on Indicators approved in 2023, this goal is finally taking measurable shape: a two-year process will identify and develop appropriate indicators to support the tracking of global adaptation progress. 

Two recent key meetings advanced this process: 

• The OECD Climate Change Expert Group (CCXG) Global Forum on the Environment and Climate Change (March 2025, Paris) 

• The Workshop under the UAE-Belém Work Programme (March 2025, Bonn) 

Both meetings contributed significantly to the methodological and strategic development of the approach to indicators. 

The CCXG Global Forum discussed conditions for voluntary yet effective reporting, focusing on criteria such as aggregability, context sensitivity, and compatibility with existing reporting formats like BTRs. Indicators should not only assess but create pressure to act by indicating progress towards the goals. 

The Workshop under the UAE-Belém Programme of the Paris Agreement served as a technical workspace to refine indicator selection, addressing questions like: How can we balance data availability with long-term impact? How can we represent cross-cutting issues from gender equality to social inclusion? What indicators are still needed to capture enabling factors? 

Both formats demonstrate: The indicators are becoming concrete. To make them more than just numbers, we need them to be contextualised, practical and politically relevant, especially with the next UNFCCC COP in Belém rapidly approaching.