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Advancing the Global Goal on Adaptation

Summary by Laura S. Lynes

COP29 –The 29th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Conventions on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was held from November 11-22, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. 

A relevant outcome to our work at The Resilience Institute was that Parties (countries) welcomed the work by the UNFCCC Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) technical expert group, of which I have the privilege of being part of.  

Under Article 7 of the Paris Agreement, the Global Goal on Adaptation calls for “enhancing adaptive capacity, strengthening resilience and reducing vulnerability to climate change…” 

But how do we know if countries are achieving their commitments towards adaptation?  

As part of the technical expert group, I will assist in reviewing and refining the compilation and mapping of indicators as well as possibly developing new indicators for measuring progress achieved by countries towards adaptation. The final list of indicators will be confirmed by Parties to the Paris Agreement at COP30 in November 2025.  

Details on the draft decisions for the Global Goal on Adaptation can be found here. 

Laura Stewart

Board Member

Laura Stewart is the Community Wildfire Resilience Coordinator with Forsite Fire, supporting communities across Canada with wildfire risk assessments, mitigation planning, and program delivery. She has more than a decade of experience advancing wildfire resilience at Indigenous, municipal, provincial/territorial, and national levels. Previously, Laura served nearly eleven years as Alberta’s Provincial FireSmart Specialist, leading community, WUI, neighbourhood, and Home Ignition Zone programs, coordinating funding, and partnering with communities and fire services across the province. She has also served as Board Chair with both the Partners in Protection Association (FireSmart Canada) and the Community Wildfire Resilience Association of Alberta.

 

Sara Walsh, PhD

Board Member

Sara Walsh, PhD, is a disaster risk reduction and climate resilience specialist with more than 15 years of experience spanning Canada, Nepal, the Middle East, and North Africa. Until November 2025, she served as Thematic Lead for Climate and Resilience with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), where she supported Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to strengthen their climate and risk reduction work across the region. Sara currently works for Greenpeace International. Her work emphasizes anticipatory action, equity, and bridging research with practice to shape more resilient and sustainable futures.

Alison Criscitiello

Board Member

Alison Criscitiello, PhD, is an ice core scientist and high-altitude mountaineer who explores the history of climate and sea ice in polar and high-alpine regions using ice core chemistry. Alison’s work also focuses on environmental contaminant histories in ice cores from the Canadian high Arctic and the water towers of the Canadian Rockies. In 2010, she led the first all-women’s ascent of Lingsarmo, a 22,818-foot peak in the Indian Himalaya. Alison has earned three American Alpine Club (AAC) climbing awards, the John Lauchlan and Mugs Stump alpine climbing awards, as well as the first Ph.D. in Glaciology ever conferred by MIT. She is an Assistant Professor and the Director of the Canadian Ice Core Lab at the University of Alberta. She is the co-founder of Girls on Ice Canada.