Currently, there is no consensus around approaches to assess the effectiveness of adaptation actions across contexts and therefore measure adaptation gaps at a global scale . UNEP  suggests that comprehensiveness, inclusiveness, implementability, integration and monitoring, and evaluation can be used to assess them . However, limited information is available about future trends in national-level adaptation and the development of monitoring and evaluation mechanisms. Despite the challenges of measurement associated with adaptation gaps, available evidence from smaller scales across several regions, communities and businesses suggest that significant adaptation gaps have existed in historical contexts of climate change, while expectations of extreme heat, increasing storm intensity and rising sea levels will create the context for the emergence of new gaps  . These adaptation gaps create risks to well-being, economic growth, equity, the health of natural systems and other societal goals. The negative impacts of these gaps can be compounded by adaptation efforts that are considered maladaptive or by development actions that are labelled as adaptation .
IPCC
Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability
IPCC Report