The three-year Standards for Climate Action – Advancing Adaptation in LAC project, supported by $1 million from the Special Climate Change Fund (SCCF) through the GEF’s Challenge Program for Adaptation Innovation, will be implemented in Colombia, Costa Rica and Trinidad and Tobago to help translate climate adaptation commitments into practical, scalable action through the application of International Standards.
Across the region, countries face increasing climate-related risks, including floods, droughts and rising sea levels. While many have established national adaptation plans, challenges remain in turning these into implementable and investable solutions. Limited technical capacity, gaps in climate data and barriers to accessing finance continue to slow progress.
The Standards for Climate Action initiative addresses these challenges by applying four ISO climate adaptation standards, ISO 14090, ISO 14091, ISO 14092 and ISO 14093, as practical tools to support organizations and institutions in assessing climate risks, planning effective responses, implementing adaptation measures and building the evidence base needed to unlock climate investment.
“Closing the gap between climate ambition and implementation remains one of the key challenges of climate adaptation,” said Noelia Garcia Nebra, Head of Sustainability and Partnerships at ISO. “International Standards provide practical, globally agreed frameworks that help organizations assess risks, plan effectively and demonstrate progress. This initiative offers an opportunity for countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to apply these tools in practice, supporting more resilient and investable adaptation approaches.”
“Adaptation becomes real when countries have the tools, systems and evidence to turn plans into action,” said Claude Gascon, Interim CEO and Chairperson of the Global Environment Facility. “Through the Special Climate Change Fund, the GEF is pleased to support this partnership with ISO and UNIDO to help countries in Latin America and the Caribbean apply international standards in practical ways – strengthening risk-informed planning, building confidence for investment, and supporting more resilient communities and economies.”
“Climate adaptation requires practical tools that help countries translate commitments into implementation,” said Ciyong Zou, Deputy to the Director General and Managing Director of the Directorate of Technical Cooperation and Sustainable Industrial Development at UNIDO. “Through this initiative, UNIDO is supporting the application of internationally recognized standards to strengthen institutional capacity, promote innovation, and accelerate the deployment of climate adaptation technologies and solutions across Latin America and the Caribbean. By working closely with national standards bodies and local stakeholders, the project will create enabling conditions for resilient and sustainable development.”
UNIDO, acting as the GEF implementing agency, will ensure overall project oversight and coordination, drawing on its network of national and regional partners to support alignment with country priorities and inclusive stakeholder engagement.
Through this network, UNIDO will contribute to strengthening connections across key actors, helping to promote the long-term uptake of climate adaptation standards.
ISO will be the executing entity and lead the technical implementation in close collaboration with national standards bodies ICONTEC (Colombia), INTECO (Costa Rica) and TTBS (Trinidad and Tobago). The project will build local expertise and strengthen institutional capacity across both the public and private sectors, including small and medium-sized enterprises.
Technical oversight is provided by ISO/TC 207, ISO’s technical committee on environmental management, working with the Standards Council of Canada (SCC) to support the consistent application of climate adaptation standards across participating countries. This collaboration helps align international best practice with local implementation.
Public sector workshops planned in all three countries for the second half of 2026 will bring together policymakers and institutional stakeholders to build awareness of the ISO standards, identify priority application areas, and establish the foundations for the training-of-trainers phase that follows.
The project is designed to support long-term impact beyond the initial three countries. By strengthening collaboration between policymakers, standards bodies and the private sector, and by documenting lessons learned, the initiative will provide a model that can be adapted and replicated across the region and beyond.
As the international community continues to focus on translating climate commitments into practical implementation, including in the lead-up to COP31, this initiative demonstrates how International Standards can support countries in turning adaptation plans into measurable and investable action.
Further information on the project, including updates and milestones, is available at:
