COP 31 Key Messaging: SEM Climate Working Group 2026 Position Paper

This position paper from the Sendai Stakeholder Engagement Mechanism (SEM), a coalition of non-state stakeholders advocating for stronger integration of DRR into intergovernmental climate policies, provides a strategic framework for advocacy in 2026. It reflects the collective input of SEM’s sixteen stakeholder constituencies and provides a strategic framework for advocacy on climate and DRR in 2026 in advance of the UNFCCC COP 31. It is grounded in the lived experiences of frontline communities and informed by emerging risk science, and includes a case study based on field research across Tamil Nadu’s 38 districts, India.

SEM states that current policy approaches remain fragmented and insufficiently risk-informed. It calls for the systematic integration of DRR across all climate policy frameworks and processes, including mitigation, adaptation, climate finance, and loss and damage, and emphasizes that effective climate action must be risk-informed, locally led, inclusive, and aligned across international frameworks. Priority recommendations cover adaptation, early warning systems, loss and damage, climate finance, frontline voices, international synergies, and monitoring and accountability.