Climate resilience efforts which seek to ensure effective adaptation enhancements are gaining prominence. The effective monitoring of outcomes and impacts of climate resilience is however crucial. Monitoring adaptation to climate change presents numerous challenges and involves a variety of approaches. This document presents the work on the mechanisms for monitoring climate resilience and adaptation in three EU Horizon 2020 projects (ARSINOE, IMPETUS, and TransformAR), and a newcomer Horizon Europe project (NATALIE) under the EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change. It synthesises the projects’ challenges and lessons learned to support future initiatives in their monitoring endeavours, for other mission projects to learn from. The identified challenges include tailoring global frameworks to local needs, identifying data availability, and enhancing interdisciplinary collaboration and stakeholder engagement.

This document would be particularly useful for regional and local authorities, academia, and project managers. It outlines key recommendations including on the definition of clear terms across different disciplines, the adaptation of global frameworks to local contexts, and monitoring and evaluation after the projects’ completion. The implementation of strong stakeholder engagement from the projects’ start, and the accessibility of reliable baseline data are also emphasised.