By Ayuska Motha, AIWC Cologne and FAWCO UNFCCC Representative
During this past summer, three FAWCO delegates (Stacey Kimmig, Carmen-Jeanette Stepek and myself) attended the Bonn Climate Change Meeting, also called SB-58.
On November 1, the UN Rep team hosted a virtual session entitled “The Road to COP28 (Conference of the Parties) in Dubai: Chat with Delegates of the Bonn Climate Change Conference,” during which the three FAWCO delegates individually shared presentations of our experiences and take-aways.
In addition to participating in multiple other important meetings and events, I also attended many sessions related to the Global Stocktake. The Global Stocktake (GST) is a cyclical process to first inventory climate progress towards keeping global warming as close to 1.5°C as possible, and to then align our actions and investment towards that outcome. The idea is that every five years, the world will be undertaking such an inventory and then tightening or realigning our targets to ensure that we stay as close to 1.5°C as possible.
There are three phases of the GST. Phase 1 is data collection and preparation, which began at COP26 in 2021 and continued until March of this year. During this phase, thousands of documents from diverse sources were uploaded to a portal, with the goal of making the GST as inclusive as possible and considering input from all perspectives, countries, organizations, constituencies, civil society, companies, etc.
During SB-58, the second phase of the GST – the technical phase – was well underway. This phase began in June 2022 and ended in September 2023, with three in-person technical dialogues, among other GST meetings taking place during the SB-58 meetings. The three topics or thematic areas of the GST include mitigation, adaptation and how to implement (that means things like finance, technology and capacity building).
The first image you see here captures one of the Technical Dialogues or Roundtable discussions that took place. In the bottom of the photo, we see two artists at work, capturing all of the oral inputs from countries, constituencies and organizations. Each Technical Dialogue was scheduled to be three hours of setting-the-scene and oral statements. But in reality, each ended up being extended in order to have time to hear from all those wanting to make statements.
The next image shows an example of the artwork or output of the Technical Dialogue, this one on Adaptation including Loss and Damage. The artistic output from the technical dialogues, along with a report from each area and a synthesis report of all three areas, are all feeding into the final phase. This final phase, or political phase, takes place from June 2023 until December 2023 and will end in key political messages at COP28.
In October, there was an in-person workshop that took place in Abu Dhabi, UAE to consider the outputs to date from the GST and to discuss which elements will be part of the outcomes at COP28. These outcomes will inform countries in their future actions and goals as well as (hopefully) enhancing international cooperation towards keeping global warming under 1.5°C.
During COP28, the findings of the technical assessment will be presented at high level events and discussed. Country leaders will discuss and should agree on a summary of key political messages, which will be part of the COP28 decision. There are many tricky issues to tackle related to how developing countries can commit to increased climate ambition without new, adequate and predictable financing for those plans. This last phase of the GST may require addressing such deep and long-standing issues as equity and responsibility for past emissions. Therefore, it might not be an easy task to find complete agreement.
According to an analysis conducted by Carbon Brief, global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions could peak as soon as 2023. The analysis includes a graph that shows the gap between a 1.5°C trajectory in the coming years and what countries have collectively currently committed to. This is the gap that needs to be addressed by the GST. As is evident from this analysis, it is still possible to remain within the 1.5°C global warming agreed to in the Paris Agreement if countries commit immediately to more ambitious pledges.
The GST is described on the UNFCCC webpage as “a critical turning point in our battle against the escalating climate crisis – it’s a moment to take a long hard look at the state of our planet and chart a better course for the future.”
Simon Stiell, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary, calls the GST a “moment for course correction, an opportunity to ramp up ambition to avoid the worst consequences of climate change. The Stocktake itself isn’t the gamechanger – it’s the global response to it that will make all the difference.”
Additional information:
What is the Global Stocktake? | Race to Resilience, Race to Zero
Why the Global Stocktake is Important for Climate Action this Decade | United Nations Climate Change
Consideration of outputs or “political” component of the global stocktake | United Nations Climate Change
Submission on the Paris Agreement’s First Global Stocktake | Women and Gender Constituency
Images courtesy of Aysuka Motha
