21 May 2015: The Secretariats of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the International Energy Agency (IEA) have released a report, titled ‘The Role of the 2015 Agreement in Enhancing Adaptation to Climate Change,’ which explores the technical pros and cons of Parties’ adaptation-related proposals for the 2015 agreement, focusing on aspects that may help enhance policies and coordinated planning for national adaptation.

The report consists of four main sections. Following an introduction contained in the first section, the second section describes the background and context, providing an overview of adaptation and focusing on: adaptation in the UNFCCC process to date; and a review and lessons learned with regard to National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs), the National Adaptation Plan (NAP) process, national adaptation strategies, and monitoring and evaluation for adaptation.

The third section outlines options for including adaptation issues in the 2015 agreement, discussing, inter alia: the global adaptation goal; universal individual commitments/contributions/actions; institutional and planning aspects of the adaptation component of (Intended) Nationally Determined Contributions ((I)NDCs); current and new international institutions for governing adaptation; evolution of the NAP process; and the relationship among mitigation, adaptation and finance.

The fourth section contains some concluding remarks on lessons learned, including that: adaptation will need to evolve overtime, which is why it includes process as well as action components; mainstreaming adaptation into legislative measures and sectoral planning requires capacity; and appropriate adaptation responses and processes will depend on countries’ national circumstances and localized conditions.

The report was published in response to a request by the Climate Change Expert Group (CCXG) comprising representatives of developed and developing countries, which oversees development of analytical papers in order to provide input to the climate negotiations under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). [Publication: The Role of the 2015 Agreement in Enhancing Adaptation to Climate Change] [OECD CCXG Webpage]