Statement of Kaveh Guilanpour
Vice President of International Strategies, Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES)

September 8, 2023

On release of the UNFCCC Global Stocktake (GST) Synthesis Report:

“As countries work toward a successful conclusion at COP28 to the two-year long UNFCCC global stocktake process, this report summarizes the extensive preparatory technical work undertaken, highlighting key opportunities for a rapid scaling up of climate action. It is now up to the political leadership of countries to act on those findings and deliver an ambitious outcome at COP28 — an outcome that serves to rapidly accelerate global climate action; to inform new, more ambitious domestic targets to put the world on a track that keeps global heating within the 1.5 degree C limit of the Paris Agreement; and to enhance international cooperation on climate change.

“One of the areas the report highlights is the need to scale up renewable energy. Work done by C2ES suggests that at COP28 countries should commit to triple global renewable energy capacity by 2030, including increasing the share of renewable energy sources in global electricity generation to at least two-thirds by 2030. This should be matched with a commitment by multilateral development banks, international financial institutions, and the private sector to triple the proportion of finance and investment in renewable energy by 2030.

“Ultimately, whether COP28 is judged as a success will largely be determined by how the world responds to the outcomes of the global stocktake and the COP more widely. The moment of truth will come in early 2025 when countries are expected to put new climate targets on the table.”

Read C2ES’s technical paper, A Solutions-Oriented Approach to the GST.

To reach a C2ES expert, contact Nora Zacharski at press@c2es.org.

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