The UAE – Belém work programme on indicators to the GGA Framework should conclude at COP30, but heading into the negotiations, several aspects are still controversial. For ensuring the long-awaited holistic action that the world urgently needs on adaptation, Parties must decide on a robust and balanced set of indicators in the Water and Sanitation Target, and the GGA Framework as a whole.
Water is both a thematic target and a cross-cutting element enabling progress across other targets and sectors. Water, the foundation of many resilience processes and systems, can act as a resilience multiplier when cross-sectoral approaches are pursued.
Yet, agreeing on indicators is only one part of the challenge. For COP30 to deliver a meaningful outcome, Parties must also focus on how the UAE Framework will be implemented. This means moving from a focus on indicators to providing practical guidance, shared methodologies, and support mechanisms that help countries translate global targets into concrete adaptation outcomes. Implementation entails developing the tools, institutional capacities, and financing pathways that make the framework operational, measurable, and effective on the ground. Only by coupling indicators with robust adaptation implementation approaches can the GGA fulfil its promise of driving transformative adaptation across all thematic targets.
These key messages have been prepared by the GGA working group of the Water for Climate Pavilion. We are taking them to Belém to highlight that water and sanitation indicators are politically and technically critical, not only for the Global Goal on Adaptation but also the Global Stocktake and Biannual Transparency Framework. They are thematic enablers for resilience across Rio Conventions, Sustainable Development Goals and Sendai Framework.
Therefore we argue:
- The rigorous work of the UNFCCC-appointed experts should be recognized through the adoption of the 100 proposed indicators that include 10 water and sanitation indicators. This will ensure that all target components are tracked, enabling holistic action
- The ten proposed water and sanitation indicators are instrumental for tracking progress in building climate resilience. Although some derive from existing SDG 6 metrics, their climate rationale emerges when they are interpreted through the lens of exposure and vulnerability to climate-related hazards
- As recognized in Article 18 of the UAE Framework for Global Climate Resilience, climate change impacts are often transboundary in nature and may involve complex, cascading risks. The indicators to be agreed under the GGA should therefore reflect and reinforce this dimension.
- To ensure that the UAE Framework meets the objectives set out for the GGA, Parties need to facilitate strong integration across thematic and policy indicators, supported by means of implementation perspectives spanning the entire framework.
- The UAE Framework gives water and sanitation a strong political mandate. The next step is to unpack key concepts, develop shared understanding of climate-resilient approaches, provide practical guidance and pathways to turn global targets into tangible adaptation results on the ground.
- Turning the UAE Framework into real adaptation action requires the knowledge, leadership, and participation of all actors across sectors, scales, and communities.
- The UAE Framework achieves far more when implemented in harmony with existing UNFCCC and water-sector mechanisms, not in isolation.
- Water and sanitation investments drive both incremental and transformative adaptation. They strengthen resilience in the short term while enabling the systemic changes that underpin long-term sustainability, equity, and development across all adaptation thematic areas.
