Methodology underpinning the state of climate action series

This technical note accompanies the State of Climate Action series. It describes the methods for identifying systems that must transform, translating these system wide transformations into global mitigation targets for 2030 and 2050, and selecting indicators with accompanying datasets for to monitor annual change. It also outlines the approach for assessing the world’s collective progress made toward near-term targets and categorizing recent efforts as on track, off track, well off track, headed in the wrong direction, or insufficient data. Finally, it details means to identify critical barriers to change and enabling conditions that can support transformations, as well as limitations to the methodology. Many of the methods underpinning this series remain unchanged from State of Climate Action 2021, although it identified small adjustments throughout. This technical note, then, serves as a companion document to State of Climate Action 2022 and to subsequent annual State of Climate Action reports, with updates made where applicable.