A stocktake before the Global Stocktake

Source– The post is based on the article “A stocktake before the Global Stocktake” published in The Hindu on 4th July 2023.

Syllabus: GS3-Environment

Relevance:  Climate change-related issues

News- The Bonn Climate Change Conference was the last big milestone in climate negotiations before the first Global Stocktake under the Paris Agreement at COP28 （Conference of the Parties 28） in Dubai.

What is the progress and challenges in global stocktake?

The Global Stocktake assess collective progress towards long-term global goals. This includes progress on greenhouse gas reduction, building resilience to climate impacts, and securing finance to address climate crisis.

In 2015, under the Paris Agreement, countries had agreed to “pursue efforts” to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C and  introduced ‘just transition pathways’ at COP27. It means that the transformational pathways need to be carried out in a way that is as fair and inclusive as possible to everyone concerned.

The outcome of  Bonn Conference was that developing countries were able to strengthen the ‘just transition pathways’ as opposed to the developed countries which which laid more emphasis on mitigation.

First challenge is that Climate finance flows are not aligned with the priorities identified by countries in their nationally determined contributions. Many observers say that only a fraction of the $100 billion has actually been realised .

Another challenge Adaptation finance has lagged behind mitigation finance, probably due to the absence of universally agreed-upon metrics.

What is the way forward?

In the efforts towards aligning climate finance with the Paris Agreement temperature goals, it is important to integrate the World Bank in climate change negotiations and hold it accountable as it is making huge investments in fossil fuels.

India also underlined the need for “financing” a ‘just transition’ in sectors such as energy and transport in order to reach net zero emissions by 2070.

Therefore, the pursuance of the Global Stocktake as per the Paris Agreement needs to comply with the principle of equity, justice and fairness.