CGIAR Climate Adaptation and Mitigation Taxonomy
739 concepts for describing climate adaptation and mitigation in agricultural research: definitions with their sources, 982 synonyms, 300 typed relations, and the conditions under which a term counts as adaptation or mitigation. Version 5.0.0-draft, 2026-09-23.
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Cite
Nowak, A. and Muller, L. (2026). CGIAR Climate Adaptation and Mitigation Taxonomy, version 5.0.0-draft. CGIAR MELIAF. Test DOI (Zenodo Sandbox, not resolvable outside it): 10.5072/zenodo.607948. A permanent DOI comes with the first non-draft release.
Licence
Proposed: CC BY 4.0, pending confirmation by the custodian. Details.
Propose a term
Anyone in CGIAR can propose to add, change or retire a term: open a term request. How proposals are decided.
Is it FAIR? Self-assessment
| Test | Status | |
|---|---|---|
| F | The vocabulary has a persistent unique web identifier | Pending: GitHub Pages address now, permanent namespace after the build-shop |
| F | Each term has a persistent unique web identifier | Yes: stable ids since version 4, one web address per term |
| F | One can search for a term and get its identifier | Yes: browse below; search via the JSON-LD and CSV |
| F | The vocabulary is available from a repository the community recognises | Pending: registration (AgroPortal, Zenodo DOI) after the build-shop |
| A | A term identifier returns a human- or machine-readable representation | Yes: each term page embeds JSON-LD; whole vocabulary in Turtle and JSON-LD |
| I | At least one representation conforms to a community standard (SKOS) | Yes: SKOS, with a small documented extension for typed relations |
| I | The vocabulary includes mapping relations to other vocabularies | Pending: mappings to the MELIAF taxonomy and AGROVOC are the next step |
| R | The licence is clear and accessible | Proposed: CC BY 4.0, pending the custodian's confirmation |
| R | Provenance and maintenance information is provided at vocabulary and term level | Yes: provenance per term, custodian, version, change log, governance |
| R | Definitions are sufficient to understand each term | Yes: every concept has a sourced definition |
Tests from Cox et al. (2021), Ten simple rules for making a vocabulary FAIR, Table 1.
Browse by facet
Climate risk 70 terms, 9 top concepts
Potential for adverse consequences of climate and its determinants and manifestations; the adaptation-side anchor. Prefix CRK_.
Climate driver 19 terms, 11 top concepts
Causal-side mitigation anchor: greenhouse gases, emission sources, and the Climate change and Climate variability drivers. Prefix CDI_.
System 114 terms, 20 top concepts
Agri-food and ecological systems and components acted upon or affected. Prefix SYS_.
Intervention 256 terms, 103 top concepts
An action or activity taken to adapt or mitigate. Prefix INT_.
- Adaptation practice
- Adaptation technology
- Agroecology
- Aquaculture management
- Biodiversity finance
- Business model development
- Capacity sharing
- Carbon capture
- Carbon dioxide removal
- Carbon utilisation
- Climate-health integration
- Climate-smart agriculture
- Climate data
- Climate model
- Co-design
- Coaching
- Commercialization
- Community-based adaptation
- Community of practice
- Consultation
- Curriculum
- Demonstration farm
- Digital advisory
- Earth observation
- Ecosystem-based adaptation
- Electrification
- Energy management
- Evidence synthesis
- Farming practice
- Fellowship
- Financial analysis
- Food loss and waste
- Food safety management
- Foresight analysis
- Genetic resource management
- Germplasm characterization
- Germplasm collecting
- Germplasm distribution
- Good agricultural practice
- Innovation bundling
- Institutional twinning
- Investment readiness
- Knowledge integration
- Locally-led adaptation
- Low-emission development
- Mechanization
- Mentoring
- Migration
- Monitoring, reporting and verification
- Nature-based solution
- Participatory rural appraisal
- Peacebuilding
- Pilot
- Political economy analysis
- Public-private partnership development
- Regenerative agriculture
- Renewable energy
- Research
- Scaling readiness assessment
- Scenario analysis
- Scholarship
- Secondment
- Seed distribution
- Seed exchange
- Seed multiplication
- Seed system strengthening
- South-South knowledge exchange
- Spatial prioritization
- Sustainable agricultural practice
- Sustainable intensification
- Sustainable land management
- Technology transfer
- Trait discovery
- Triangular cooperation
- True-cost accounting
- Varietal adoption monitoring
- Variety release
- Weather data
- Whole-farm system analysis
Output 98 terms, 61 top concepts
A tangible product, service, or deliverable produced by an intervention. Prefix OUT_.
- Business model
- Climate de-risking instrument
- Climate information system
- Climate observation network
- Climate risk scoring tool
- Coalition
- Community of practice
- Concept note
- Curriculum
- Dashboard
- Data platform
- Data system
- Dataset
- Decision-support platform
- Early warning system
- Emission factor
- Farmer field school
- Fodder bank
- Germplasm
- Guideline
- Innovation
- Innovation bundle
- Investment concept
- Investment proposal
- Local adaptation plan
- Long-term low-emission development strategy
- Market information
- Mechanization device
- Monitoring tool
- Monitoring, reporting and verification system
- Multi-stakeholder platform
- National adaptation plan
- National Adaptation Programme of Action
- Partnership
- Policy brief
- Protocol
- Repository
- Scientific publication
- Sectoral adaptation plan
- Standard
- Strategy document
- Training material
Outcome 69 terms, 51 top concepts
A neutral state or property that changes as a result; direction applied at tagging time. Prefix OTC_.
- Adaptation effectiveness
- Agency
- Agrobiodiversity
- Agronomic performance
- Behavioural change
- Carbon sequestered
- Climate policy adequacy
- Climate policy coherence
- Climate risk reduction
- Co-benefit
- Coordination
- Diet affordability
- Dietary change
- Ecosystem function
- Emission intensity
- Employment
- Enabling environment
- Energy efficiency
- Environmental damage
- Feed availability
- Food access
- Food loss
- Food security
- Food system transformation
- Food waste
- Governance
- Greenhouse gas emissions
- Income
- Knowledge
- Land Degradation Neutrality
- Livelihood diversity
- Loss and damage
- Maladaptation
- Net zero emissions
- New investment
- Nitrogen use efficiency
- Skills
- Social norms change
- Soil function
- Soil organic carbon
- Water availability
- Water use efficiency
- Wellbeing
- Yield
- Yield stability
Impact 5 terms, 2 top concepts
A long-term or higher-order effect. Prefix IMP_.
Adoption pathway 5 terms, 5 top concepts
A modifier describing the stage or degree of uptake and scaling; never used alone. Prefix ADP_.
Breeding trait 9 terms, 5 top concepts
A heritable characteristic targeted by breeding. Prefix TRT_.
Stakeholder 67 terms, 14 top concepts
An actor or social group involved in or affected by climate action. Prefix STK_.
Cross-cutting concept 27 terms, 25 top concepts
A construct that qualifies other terms rather than occupying a position on the results chain: normative principles, named ways of working, and greenhouse-gas accounting constructs. Prefix CCC_. A term belongs here only if it cannot fill a pathway element on its own; if it can, it belongs in a chain facet.
- Adaptation deficit
- Additionality
- Autonomous adaptation
- Baseline scenario
- Carbon dioxide equivalent
- Carbon sink
- Climate justice
- Double counting
- Emissions leakage
- Food sovereignty
- Gender-responsive adaptation
- Gender-transformative
- Gender mainstreaming
- Global warming potential
- Incremental adaptation
- Indigenous knowledge
- Just transition
- Mitigation potential
- Non-permanence
- Scope 1 emissions
- Scope 2 emissions
- Scope 3 emissions
- Transformational adaptation
- Water-energy-food nexus