After many hours of waiting, the latest iteration of the draft text responding to the Global Stocktake has been released at COP28. Overall, this text comes across as a low-ball on ambition. See E3G’s key takeaways below as we enter the final stretch of the negotiations.
This package would not act as a credible response to the gaps revealed by the Global Stocktake and the latest IPCC science. COP28 has seen a level of ambition over the last 12 days not reflected in this text. This version will smoke out the high ambition pushes from parties, forcing all to reveal their true positions.
After a day of private consultations yesterday, we need to see transparency, with champions of ambition on both developed and developing country sides rallying hard.
Quotes
Tom Evans, E3G Policy Advisor, said on the GST overall:
“The Global Stocktake should be a shared action plan to realise our dream of meeting the Paris Agreement. Instead, this text is a nightmare of weak proposals and internal contradictions: asking to keep 1.5C in reach on the one hand, while on the other setting out no common pathway for phasing out fossil fuels fast. This is not a credible response to the crisis we are in. The Presidency needs to do a fundamental rethink. The text needs considerable strengthening to pass the bar of ambition. We’ve seen from past COPs that this is an uphill battle. The next 17 hours must see the champions of ambition rally hard and isolate those who are holding ambition back.”
Lisa Fischer, E3G Programme Lead, said on energy:
“There is no collective commitment to any component, and this is the priority issue to fix, as it makes this text completely out of line with 1.5°C. This leaves parties to pick and choose – and they may choose nothing. This sets us back on what was agreed in Glasgow and in Sharm El Sheikh, where we had a collective commitment on advancing coal phase down and clean energy. Also, while the options cover most important themes, each of them needs strengthening – in particular on fossil fuels, renewables, efficiency, and abatement.”
Laura Sabogal, E3G Senior Policy Advisor, said on finance:
“This iteration of the text loses the direction of travel about how to increase much-needed concessional and grant finance. This is supposed to be an implementation COP, but this text stops at setting the scene around how much money is needed. It acknowledges the gap of adaptation finance, and loss and damage, but fails to provide solutions. We need to see clear, sustainable and predictable sources of finance to scale up much-needed concessional and grant finance. The COP presidency has a key opportunity to build on the existing political momentum for international finance reform that it has squandered so far.”
Ana Mulio Alvarez, E3G Researcher, said on adaptation:
“The text on adaptation remains weak and unclear in the latest GST iteration. The placeholder for GGA targets should include the request for developed country Parties to provide developing country Parties support of progress towards the targets as established in para 33 of the latest iteration. On finance, the text deletes the request to the Standing Committee on Finance for the establishment of a roadmap to double adaptation finance, while noting that the estimated needs of adaptation are now approximately 10–18 times as much as international public adaptation finance flows, and growing.”
Notes to Editors
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