Conference of the Parties (COP28) Event Highlights Urgent Need to Accelerate Development and Implementation of National Adaptation Plans

Conference of the Parties (COP28) Event Highlights Urgent Need to Accelerate Development and Implementation of National Adaptation Plans

The urgent need to accelerate the development and implementation of national adaptation plans (NAPs) – crucial to strengthening resilience to climate change at the national level – was in focus at a COP28 event that brought together high-level representatives of governments and intergovernmental organizations at the initiative of UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell.

The event on 4 December, during the COP28 UN Climate Change Conference in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, came amid growing concern that progress in implementing NAPs has been much too slow. To date, 13 years after the launch of the process to formulate and implement NAPs, only 52 countries have submitted a NAP: just over a third of developing countries, half of least developed countries, and a third of small island developing states (SIDS). Moreover, the number of adaptation projects implemented has not been consistent with the urgent need to address the impacts of climate change.

“The increasing speed and scale of negative climate impacts makes it imperative for us to develop and implement NAPs with urgency,” said Stiell as he opened the event. “Through NAPs, countries identify national adaptation and resilience-building needs. They also identify priority actions to address those needs.”

The event highlighted the following