A stocktake before the Global Stocktake

Subject : Environment

Section: International conventions

Concept :

The Bonn Climate Change Conference served as a significant milestone in climate negotiations before the first Global Stocktake under the Paris Agreement.
The Global Stocktake is mandated to assess collective progress towards long-term global climate goals, including greenhouse gas reduction, resilience building, and securing finance.

Just Transition Pathways

Climate change negotiators reached a compromise on “just transition pathways” during the conference.
India’s climate policy emphasised the need for financing a “just transition” in sectors like energy and transport to achieve net-zero emissions by 2070.
Just transition pathways aim to ensure a fair and inclusive transformation towards low-carbon development.
Aligned with Paris Agreement Principles
The adoption of just transition pathways aligns with the Paris Agreement’s self-differentiation principle.
Developing countries were able to strengthen just transition pathways, while developed countries focused more on mitigation efforts.
Just transition also respects soft obligations from the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the ILO’s guidelines on just transition.

Mobilising Climate Finance

Climate finance flows are not aligned with countries’ identified priorities in their nationally determined contributions.
The $100 billion annual climate finance goal has not been fully realized, and adaptation finance lags behind mitigation finance.
The Environmental Integrity Group suggested that the Mitigation Work Programme should contribute to financing, deviating from major international public finance transfers.

Integrating the World Bank and Ensuring Equity

Efforts to align climate finance with the Paris Agreement’s temperature goals require integrating the World Bank in climate change negotiations and holding it accountable for investments in fossil fuels.
The pursuit of the Global Stocktake should comply with principles of equity, justice, and fairness.

Article 14 of Paris Agreement

Global Stocktake – A “global stocktake”, to take place in 2023 and every 5 years thereafter, will assess collective progress toward achieving the purpose of the Agreement in a comprehensive and facilitative manner.
It will be based on the best available science and its long-term global goal.
Its outcome will inform Parties in updating and enhancing their actions and support and enhancing international cooperation on climate action.

Article 4 of Paris Agreement

Mitigation – The Paris Agreement establishes binding commitments by all Parties to prepare, communicate and maintain a nationally determined contribution (NDC) and to pursue domestic measures to achieve them.
It also prescribes that Parties shall communicate their NDCs every 5 years and provide information necessary for clarity and transparency.
To set a firm foundation for higher ambition, each successive NDC will represent a progression beyond the previous one and reflect the highest possible ambition.
Developed countries should continue to take the lead by undertaking absolute economy-wide reduction targets, while developing countries should continue enhancing their mitigation efforts, and are encouraged to move toward economy-wide targets over time in the light of different national circumstances.

Environmental Integrity Group (EIG)

The Environmental Integrity Group (EIG), formed in 2000, comprises Mexico, Liechtenstein, Monaco, the Republic of Korea, Switzerland and Georgia.
The Environmental Integrity Group was initiated by Switzerland during the negotiations of the Kyoto Protocol, where only party groups were allowed to negotiate.
Switzerland was not part of any group and they did not want to join the Umbrella Group. So Switzerland declared to form the EIG and invited other independent parties to join.