IN 2015, the Paris Climate Accord, a legally binding international treaty, established a structured plan for climate action with step-by-step targets for emission reductions, aiming for net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. It acknowledged that reducing GHG emissions alone would not be enough to control climate change: mutually supportive adaptation policies would be necessary to protect vulnerable people from its impact. According to the Intergovern­mental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report, some 3.6 billion people, almost half the global population, are highly vulnerable to climate change.

The Paris Agreement, therefore, established a Global Goal on Adaptation to enhance adaptive capacity, strengthen resilience and reduce vulnerability to climate change in the context of its goal to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. This benchmark was based on the IPCC’s analysis that crossing this threshold would unleash harsh environmental impacts, including severe heatwaves, frequent droughts and heavy rainfall — which are becoming common. Sadly, the Global Goal on Adaptation is yet to be operationalised.

For developing countries, the treaty also laid down a framework for........

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