From Global Indicators to Local Resilience: Making adaptation work for most vulnerable communities

As climate change intensifies heatwaves, floods, and other extreme weather events, cities and communities are increasingly responsible for protecting people’s health and well-being. Children, young people and other vulnerable groups face disproportionate risks, yet their needs and experiences are not always adequately reflected in adaptation planning, monitoring and reporting.

The adoption of the Belém Adaptation Indicators under the GGA marked an important step towards measuring global adaptation progress. As countries begin to put these indicators into practice, attention must now turn to what may still be missing and how the framework can capture socially differentiated vulnerabilities, local realities and tangible outcomes for communities.

This session will connect the UNFCCC negotiations with adaptation implementation on the ground. It will examine how the indicators can be strengthened through child-sensitive and socially disaggregated data, as well as respond to the local realities and facilitate access to adaptation finance. Representatives from cities and civil society will share how adaptation planning currently takes place at the local level, particularly in relation to heat resilience, and how cross-border and multilevel cooperation can strengthen local capacities. Drawing on German–Turkish municipal cooperation and experiences from other national and local contexts, the discussion will identify what COP31 should deliver to make the GGA deliver for communities.