Speakers: Mikaela Rambali, Policy Analyst, Climate adaptation and resilience team (OECD) and Maike Kirsch, Junior Policy Analyst, Climate adaptation and resilience team (OECD). Presentation at the 1st meeting of the Working Party on Climate Change (WPCC) held at the OECD headquarters on 27-28 September, 2023.

1. Report on recent activities of the
secretariat
1st WPCC meeting
27-28 September 2023
Adaptation measurement
Mikaela Rambali & Maike Kirsch
Climate, Biodiversity and Water Division (CBW)
Environment Directorate
Working Party on

2. Working Party on Climate Change (WPCC)
Presentation outline
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1. Overview and rationale for OECD work on adaptation measurement
2. Emerging findings
3. Next steps

3. Working Party on Climate Change (WPCC)
Rationale
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All OECD countries have a national adaptation policy...
which includes a
section on how to
track and evaluate
progress
Half of OECD
countries developed
progress or evaluation
reports
Growing number of
mandates in climate laws

4. Working Party on Climate Change (WPCC)
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Support countries in their
efforts to understand
progress in implementing
their national adaptation
policies
Attribution & Measuring effectiveness
Aggregating/comparing information
collected across sectors or jurisdictions
Inadequate technical, legal and financial
resources
Rationale

5. 5
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Cross-country Peer-learning
Country case studies
Forthcoming
Survey
Cross-country
analysis of
challenges and
approaches
United Kingdom
Find out more on: oe.cd/adaptation-measurement
Measuring progress in implementing national
adaptation policies
Tracking a moving target: How to measure progress
and policy effectiveness in adapting to climate change
Developing meaningful adaptation policy indicators
OECD/DAC Dialogue on Using Evidence and Learning
to Achieve Climate Adaptation Results
Measuring progress in implementing national
adaptation policies – COP27 Korean pavilion
Making effective progress on adaptation from project to
national and global levels - OECD IDDRI Deval
Overview of OECD work on
adaptation measurement
Slovak Republic
Korea & Chile

6. Report on recent activities of the
secretariat
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Emerging findings

7. Working Party on Climate Change (WPCC)
Adaptation measurement throughout the
policy cycle
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Track and
evaluate
progress
Assess
climate risks
Implement
adaptation
measures
Develop
adaptation
policy
responses
Defining
baselines
Translating climate
risks into adaptation
objectives
Measuring policy
implementation
Attributing efforts to
climate risk reduction

8. Working Party on Climate Change (WPCC)
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Conduct regular, inclusive Climate Risk Assessments
ASSESS CLIMATE RISKS
Defining baselines with Climate Risk Assessments
Observed hazards
Gaps remain in assessing
exposure and vulnerability
Gaps remain in measuring
observed climate impacts
Source: 2023 OECD Environmental Performance Reviews: Germany 2023.
Expected area of 100-year return-period flood in North-Rhein
Westphalia, Germany

9. Working Party on Climate Change (WPCC)
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Be specific (sector, geographic
area, type of actions)
“Reduce vulnerability and improve the
adaptive capacity of ecologic, social and
economic systems towards the unavoidable
impacts of climate change”
Objectives are often generic and not
specific enough to be measurable
DEVELOP ADAPTATION POLICY RESPONSES
Translating climate risks into objectives
Reflect key climate risks
Set baseline and timeframe
for achieving the objective
…identified in 2020 by 2030 as far as possible.”
Source: Defra (2023) National Adaptation Programme 2023: Annex 1: Climate Risk and Opportunities.
“Minimise fatalities and major disruption from climate change-
driven increases in river, surface water and groundwater
flooding…
…in the transport network…

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Establish a pyramid
showing how actions
aim to contribute to
overall objectives
High-
level objectives
Targets
Actions Objectives Halt the decline in species abundance
by 2030 by reducing risks to terrestrial
species and habitat
Restoring 75% of terrestrial and freshwater sites to
favourable condition by 2042
Become a climate-
resilient country
Reducing household and non-household
water consumption to improve water
efficiency to prevent over-abstraction
impacts on freshwater habitats and
species
DEVELOP ADAPTATION POLICY RESPONSES
Translating climate risks into objectives

11. Working Party on Climate Change (WPCC)
MEASURING POLICY IMPLEMENTATION
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WHAT DO COUNTRIES MEASURE IN PRACTICE?
Resources engaged
“Annual expenditure for flood
defences”
➢ Ambition to measure the
resources (e.g. budgets and
staff) engaged for adaptation
actions
➢ Difficult due to lack of resources
tagging
Direct results
“Physical measures, regulations or
plans implemented”
➢ Common practice to measure
direct results
➢ Increasing number of tracking
tools (UK & France track 253 and
240 Nap actions, respectively)

12. Working Party on Climate Change (WPCC)
MEASURING IMPACT
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Impacts
“Annual damages from
flooding, agricultural losses
from drought, number of heat-
related deaths”
To a lesser extent do countries
measure the impacts that result
from implemented actions
Climate impact Policy impact
Challenge of attributing
actions to reduction in climate
risks and impacts
!


13. Working Party on Climate Change (WPCC)
ATTRIBUTING EFFORTS TO CLIMATE
RISK REDUCTION
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Theory of Change
Expert consultation
Quantitative impact evaluation

14. Report on recent activities of the
secretariat
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Next steps

15. Working Party on Climate Change (WPCC)
Feedback received from initial scoping
Focus on policy-related indicators
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83% are engaged on indicators development
Deciding what is useful to measure: Going beyond inputs and outputs
Data availability
Existing data dispersed across data owners

16. Working Party on Climate Change (WPCC)
Feedback received from initial scoping
Focus on policy-related indicators
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Value of establishing sectoral and local indicators and defining
whether these should look at process or outcome.
Relevance for national vs for international work
Importance of promoting collaboration among data providers
and users.
Opportunity to look at agriculture in collaborative work with TAD

17. Working Party on Climate Change (WPCC)
Timeline
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Full report to be circulated for 3
weeks review with WPCC and then
EPOC declassification
Finalisation of case study work
Development of paper on adaptation
indicators in the agriculture sector

18. Working Party on Climate Change (WPCC)
Questions for discussion
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• How can this work be made most relevant for your country?
• Would you like to support this work in the future?

19. Report on recent activities of the
secretariat
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Thank you!
Mikaela Rambali Mikaela.Rambali@oecd.org
Maike Kirsch Maike.Kirsch@oecd.org