ABP Live Deep Dive | Belém Indicators Explained: The New Climate Scorecard India Cannot Ignore

With climate risks rising, new Belém Adaptation Indicators aim to guide funding and action, as India looks to align its national adaptation plans with local realities and climate resilience goals.

The increasing incidence of climate-induced extreme weather events and their disproportionate impact on the vulnerable population.

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As climate change intensifies across geographies, adaptation has emerged as a critical pillar for climate action. The countries now move towards strengthening adaptation strategies, and indicators become critical to measure, record and secure funds for adaptation-related climate action. COP 30 marked substantive progress in strengthening the agenda for adaptation by adopting “Belém Adaptation Indicators”. The Global Goal on Adaptation was adopted under Article 7 of the Paris Agreement in 2015. 

The increasing incidence of climate-induced extreme weather events and their disproportionate impact on the vulnerable population. Globally, 1.2 billion people are at high risk from climate change. Adaptation plays a crucial role in enabling countries to adjust ecological, social and economic systems to moderate potential damages, reduce exposure and enhance resilience against climate change, without directly reducing GHG emissions, as in the case of mitigation. 

Why Adaptation Indicators Matter

Unlike mitigation, where the outcomes are measurable in terms of emissions saved or avoided, adaptation outcomes are much more difficult to quantify. Adaptation outcomes are complex, context-specific and often produce outcomes that are realised over a long period of time. Therefore, measuring adaptation requires developing frameworks that address diverse socio-economic and environmental values associated with climate action. 

Moreover, adaptation-based climate action is a long-term process that requires continuous monitoring and evaluation. It makes the process both time and resource-intensive. In the absence of a globally accepted methodology to capture such complexities, adaptation fails to attract the required finance. Current estimates suggest that around USD 310 billion is required annually to fund adaptation work in developing countries. Therefore, robust indicators are essential to track progress and attract the required climate finance. 

The Belém Adaptation Indicators have come at the right time as countries increasingly work towards adaptation. The indicators are voluntary and non-prescriptive, creating no new financial obligations or commitments for the parties. It recognises that adaptation is context-specific and encourages the parties to further disaggregate the Belem indicators in accordance with their national priorities. 

Case for National Adaptation Indicators

While the indicators are a much-awaited global template to translate policy into measurable action. It is important to note that the real test of such frameworks lies at the frontlines where the real climate adaptation work happens. 

Moreover, climate vulnerabilities and their associated risks often require hyper local adaption strategies. This variability becomes amplified in India’s context with diverse geographies, socio-economic disparities and complex governance structures. 

India is currently in the process of finalising the National Adaptation Plan (NAP), making it an opportune time to introduce a set of national adaptation indicators in alignment with the global framework but in sync with local realities. 

Global indicators require meaningful interpretation to develop sub-indicators which are relevant to the Indian context. For example, terms like “water services that are climate-resilient” will hold different interpretations for arid, coastal, flood-prone and hilly states. Similarly, calculating “Rate of mortality associated with climate impacts” becomes difficult in the case of heatwaves as compared to other hazards. 

Effective indicators thus need to go beyond capturing only outputs. They need to focus on outcomes and impacts to ensure that adaptation actions translate into resilience building and well-being at the ground level. 

From Global Framework to Local Action

While the Belém indicators provide a roadmap, aligning them to national priorities and local realities is the key to effective implementation. It is critical that the Belém Indicators are not restricted to being a bureaucratic exercise for UNFCCC reporting. Instead, it is used for shaping India’s climate governance and planning. Therefore, in order to drive National Adaptation Indicators, a multi-pronged approach needs to be adopted by the government. 

It is important that states are given the flexibility in opting for priority indicators and setting targets that address their pressing concerns. This flexibility also needs to trickle down to the local governments to ensure local concerns and priorities are identified and addressed through participatory approaches. 

Social parameters can be incorporated in the indicators to ensure that aspects of safety, accessibility, inclusivity, etc., are addressed by adaptation projects. It helps to put focus on resilience beyond physical infrastructure. 

Monitoring and evaluating adaptation projects will require building local capacities. The local authorities need to be equipped to identify direct and indirect benefits of public projects. Some of the traditional projects, like stormwater management, flood management and others, contribute towards adaptation and can be funded through adaptation finance. 

Therefore, the quantification of outcomes becomes a critical aspect of adaptation projects and will require clearly defined indicators with the capacity of local authorities to ensure proper impact assessment. Further, linking indicators to public expenditure is another key area where the government can link budgetary allocations with progress against adopted indicators. 

All Eyes On World Economic Forum

Belém Indicators represent a much-awaited development in global adaptation policy. With increasing focus on adaptation at national and international levels, it is imperative that India takes a lead in spearheading innovative climate governance in the Global South. 

As global leaders convene for the upcoming deliberations at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos between January 19-23, discussions around climate resilience, nature-based solution and inclusivity are expected to feature prominently. This presents an important opportunity for the Indian delegation to engage with global stakeholders on strengthening climate adaptation finance, while advancing the country’s broader climate objectives. 

Developing a robust national adaptation plan and corresponding indicators will strengthen India’s climate governance and improve access to climate finance. At the same time, support the National Action Plan on Climate Change and its net-zero target for 2070, without compromising inclusive and sustained economic growth.

(Prakash is a Distinguished Fellow in Transport & Urban Governance Division at The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI); Singh is a Research Associate in Transport & Urban Governance at TERI)

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