Whether COP28 is judged as a success will hinge on the outcomes of the global stocktake (GST) process. C2ES for over two years has worked to shape the GST to drive transformational levels of implementation, fairness, and ambition at COP28 and beyond.
Parties to the Paris Agreement are required to undertake a global stocktake (GST) every five years to assess collective progress toward the agreement’s long-term goals on mitigation, adaptation, and means of implementation. Informed by the GST, each Party is expected to communicate a new updated nationally determined contribution (NDC) representing a “progression” beyond its previous NDC and reflecting its “highest possible ambition.” This process of increasing commitment to climate action through the GST to inform actions—including updating NDCs and National Adaptation Plans (NAP)—is known as the “ambition cycle.” The first GST will culminate at COP28 in Dubai.
For over two years C2ES has worked to help shape the GST process by ensuring a strong focus on opportunities to scale up climate ambition. To add real value and make a difference, the GST process must send clear and specific signals as to what Parties and non-Party stakeholders should do to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement and so avoid catastrophic climate change that is beyond our ability to adapt to. These signals need to identify and highlight specific, implementable solutions that speak directly to national level policy makers and stakeholders in every country.
Our work aims for an ambitious and environmentally effective outcome from the GST that leverages COP28 to drive needed real-world action, assists countries to implement existing climate commitments, and facilitates increased ambition for, and implementation of, their next round of commitments.
The GST operates as part of an important wider context beyond the formal UNFCCC GST process, with additional political milestones, related events, and developments that will also shape climate ambition and implementation. The success of the GST depends on adequate attention to this wider context, with a strong emphasis on near-term scalable action consistent with the Paris Agreement’s long-term goals. As such, our work also has a strong focus on how international cooperation on climate action, including by non-Parties, can be enhanced.
Given that the role of the GST is to inform the enhancement and implementation of climate action, what happens after the first GST ends at COP28 will be a critical determinant as to whether the goals of the Paris Agreement are achieved. As such it is vital to ensure that 2024 delivers an effective response to the outcomes of the GST.
To provide the basis for the opportunities framework and engagement strategy, C2ES and EDF developed three landscape analyses, or surveys of current and emerging research, data, frameworks, initiatives, technologies, policy options and processes within and without the UNFCCC across mitigation, adaptation, and finance. These analyses also identify, on the basis of the survey, the most effective interventions for enhancing global climate action, as well as those countries and actors that could be the most effective targets or beneficiaries of those interventions.
Get in touch with C2ES about the GST!