By Nneka Nwogwugwu
The UN Climate Change secretariat has launched two new public registries that showcase countries’ national climate action plans (NDCs) and communicate means of adapting to climate change impacts (ADCOMs).
The NDCs and ADCOMS are two key instruments of the Paris Agreement.
Both registries for NDCs and ADCOMs were approved during COP26.
Launching the new public registry for NDCs signifies a crucial step toward implementing the work programme agreed upon during COP24 in Katowice, Poland.
Under the Paris Agreement, countries must update their NDCs every five years, with each new round of NDC updates showing increased ambition. Mobilising the necessary climate finance from private and public sectors and other multilateral cooperation is a prerequisite to ensuring more ambitious NDCs over time.
The second further crucial public registry agreed at COP26 – the Adaptation Communications Registry (ADCOMs) – communicates ways of adapting to the impacts of climate change.
The purpose of ADCOMs is to increase the visibility and profile of climate change adaptation. It also aims to strengthen adaptation action and support for developing countries, provide input to the Global Stocktake on the Paris Agreement, and enhance understanding of adaptation needs and activities.
ADCOMs can contain elements like information on impacts, risks and vulnerabilities, adaptation progress and results achieved, barriers, challenges and gaps to implementing adaptation, among others.
The ADCOMs can be submitted together with other communications or documents, including a National Adaptation Plan (NAP), a national communication, an NDC, or a biennial transparency report.
Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of UN Climate Change, said: “The public registry is a great move forward in showcasing Parties’ climate actions and providing up-to-date and reliable information on them. It ultimately helps to promote national and global accountability and transparency towards climate commitments and actions.”
