Adaption Communications - Balancing utility and flexibility
The Adaptation Communications can play a central role in identifying national needs and enabling international follow-up, while informing future action, driving ambition, and contributing information for the global stocktake (GST) mandated by the Agreement. According to Article 7.10, the Adaptation Communications should communicate national priorities, plans, actions, and implementation and support needs. Further guidance on these Communications is currently being negotiated by Parties to the Paris Agreement under agenda item 4 of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Paris Agreement (APA). This policy brief considers the state of these negotiations following the 23rd Conference of Parties (COP23) to the UNFCCC in November 2017, and the difficult balancing act that Parties face in developing guidance that will make the Communications useful on the one hand, and avoid placing an additional burden on countries (particularly those with limited capacity) on the other.