Despite the continued rise in temperatures, record-breaking heatwaves, and the devastating droughts, fires and floods around the world, adaptation to climate change is not happening at the speed and scale needed to protect humans, nature and livelihoods. The 2022 IPCC 6th Assessment and the 2023 UN Environment Programme Adaptation Gap reports warned that the adaptation finance gap is widening and that the pace of planning and implementation of adaptation efforts must accelerate in light of future expected climate impacts.

Global greenhouse gas emissions are still on the rise and the impacts of climate change, manifested for example with extensive drought episodes or sea level rise, will increasingly be experienced across countries. To address these impacts, many countries are making climate change adaptation a national priority, adopting comprehensive national policies which lay out adaptation priorities and objectives for cross-government actions.

This chapter presents the main findings from this report. It first discusses the rationale for adaptation measurement, including a framing discussion on what needs to be measured and how. This is complemented by findings from a stocktake of OECD countries’ current practices and achievements in measuring progress in implementing national adaptation policies. The chapter is informed by a cross-country survey carried out in OECD member and partner countries, as well as expert workshops, and in-depth country case studies in Chile, Korea, the Slovak Republic, and the United Kingdom.

This chapter presents the results of the United Kingdom case study. It documents efforts, achievements and remaining gaps in the design and use of adaptation measurement frameworks in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, and assesses the suitability of adaptation indicators to help gauge progress in building resilience to climate change.

This chapter presents the results of the country case study of Chile. It documents the policy and institutional context for adaptation in Chile and discusses the efforts, achievements, and remaining gaps for measuring progress on adaptation. It also reviews Chile’s adaptation indicator frameworks.

This chapter presents the results of the country case study carried out in Korea. It reviews Korea’s adaptation measurement framework, providing an overview of the policy and institutional framework and the methods used to measure progress in implementing national and local adaptation policies. It also highlights indicators that have been developed in the country to shed light on adaptation progress.

This chapter presents the findings of the case study carried out in the Slovak Republic. The full case study was released as an OECD Environment Policy Paper, which provides an extensive overview of the country’s adaptation measurement framework and practices. It puts a specific focus on the methodology developed for measuring climate change risks at the municipal level to inform adaptation priorities and budget allocation decisions.

The cross-country survey on adaptation measurement gathered information on existing practices, achievements and persisting challenges faced in measuring adaptation progress at the national level. The survey consisted of 26 open-ended and multiple-choice questions on adaptation policy context, measurement processes and approaches and key challenges as well as emerging good practices. The survey was sent to 48 countries and targeted national government officials working on climate adaptation. The countries included 38 OECD Members, 6 OECD accession countries (Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Croatia, Peru, Romania) and 4 OECD key partner countries (China, India, Indonesia, South Africa) and the European Union (EU). The OECD received 30 countries responses, which corresponds to a 62.5% response rate.

Overview of adaptation as a policy priority (providing short historical context) and main national adaptation policies (key strategies and documents such as NAS, NAP, NDC and sectoral);