The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) defines adaptation as the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate and its effects, in order to moderate harm or exploit beneficial opportunities. With global warming surpassing 1 degree Celsius, adapting to current and future climate changes has become a primary concern for policymakers at all levels. Despite notable progress, the IPCC highlights gaps in adaptation efforts, which are projected to grow at current rates of implementation.
At the Conference of the Parties (COP28), a framework for a Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) was endorsed, with Monitoring, evaluation and learning as one of four core targets. The text states that by 2030, all Parties have designed, established and operationalized a system for monitoring, evaluation and learning for their national adaptation efforts and have built the required institutional capacity to fully implement the system. The GGA also decided to launch a two-year work programme on indicators for measuring progress achieved towards the targets.
Satellite Earth Observation (EO) revolutionised systemic observations and has played a pivotal role in understanding climate changes to date, yet its potential to support adaptation monitoring and development is only beginning to be explored.
The main objectives of this Forum are thus to discuss current methods and capabilities of EO to support adaptation planning and monitoring. Specifically, this Forum aims to collect in a white paper and/or possibly peer-reviewed article the status of research and development (R&D) for using EO to support climate change adaptation. Forum deliberations will aim to develop a list of EO metrics of Essential Climate Variables (ECVs) that can help to support the ongoing discussions around the Global Goal on Adaptation. Knowledge gaps that require filling to further enhance EO adaptation R&D will also be explored.