Back to top
Blog
19.12.2022 · Anna Pérez Català

COP27: successful technical dialogue for the Global Stocktake

Body

At the UN climate summit in Sharm-el-Sheikh in November this year, Parties to the Paris Agreement continued the so-called Global Stocktake (GST), a process by which the international community takes stock of the sufficiency of its efforts to achieve the objectives of the Paris Agreement. The outcomes of the GST are supposed to inform countries’ deliberations over subsequent NDCs and enhance international cooperation. The first GST is taking place from 2021 to 2023.

The first round of the Technical Dialogues (TD) for the first GST commenced at the inter-sessional meeting in June in Bonn. Especially the plenary sessions of the TD were still very much dominated by countries repeating previously stated positions. The co-facilitators of the TD also hosted a world café event that enabled more constructive dialogue among the participants.

At Sharm-el-Sheikh, the second round of the Technical Dialogues took place. This time, the co-facilitators managed to facilitate a genuine conversation, which was achieved by a transparent and inclusive process, building and expanding on the world café method successfully introduced in the first TD and a wider range of thematic breakout groups during the more formal roundtable sessions. Access to the roundtables was managed so that a balance of Party delegates and observers was maintained. Moreover, the TD was complemented with a creative space in which artists could present their perspectives on the GST as well as an (academic) poster session.

To further facilitate the process, Parties decided to invite submissions on how to organise the political consideration of outputs at COP28. Moreover, a series of additional events were mandated including a hybrid event in April for a first consultation and an in-person meeting in October to “develop elements for the consideration of outputs”.

Successful outcome

Overall the progress of the TD was applauded by both parties and observer organisations. According to one delegate, the process design was very effective in leveraging an extremely wide range of inputs. The inclusivity of the 2nd dialog implied also the participation of a wide range of non-state actors, such as lobbyists from the fossil fuel industry. Consequently, this confers a great deal of power and responsibility to the co-facilitators who will provide a factual summary of each TD session as well as key emerging findings after the conclusion of the final TD in June 2023. These emerging findings will form a key input to the political phase of the GST to be completed at COP28. Whether the GST can ultimately achieve its objective and leverage increased ambition in subsequent NDCs remains to be seen, but certainly, the smooth and inclusive implementation of the second TD was one of the success stories of COP27.

NDC ASPECTS @COP27

NDC ASPECTS was present following and participating in the whole Technical Dialogue at COP27, but most specifically, the consortium was invited to present a scientific poster as part of the official process. The poster session link consisted in a set of 25 posters that were located in front of one of the main plenaries at COP. The authors of the posters had a two-hour slot during the first week when people were able to ask questions and engage with the scientific recommendations that were being presented. Overall, the session was very successful, it promoted exchanges between researchers presenting the posters, general people interested in the COP or GST process, and also stakeholders who are playing an active role in shaping the GST.

NDC ASPECTS also organised a side event on industrial transformation at COP 27. On 10 November 2022, Wuppertal Institut, University of Technology Sydney, Ecologic Institute, Climate Analytics, and WISE Europa conducted the event “Science-based targets and sectoral climate clubs to trigger industrial transformation - What can they contribute & how can we accelerate their uptake?”.

Read more here.

Anna Pérez Català is a Research Fellow at the IDDRI institute (profile page)

 

Event type