CAN Submission for the First Input Phase of the Global Stocktake (August 2022)

The Global Stocktake (GST) is essential to ensure the implementation of the Paris Agreement. It is the heart of the Paris ambition mechanism as it mandates Parties to raise their ambition. And by ambition, we mean all aspects: mitigation, adaptation, means of implementation and support, finance flows, loss and damages, science, technology transfer and capacity building and of course equity. Thus, the ultimate goal of the GST is to protect people from the impacts of climate change, support them to mitigate and adapt and address loss and damage to achieve climate justice. It is the only way to ensure the safety of people and the ecosystems of the planet.

The GST  is the only accountability mechanism of the Paris Agreement: if it fails, we will have to wait for 5 years to hope for improvements, which would have impacts for climate action first after 2030. The IPCC is clear: we have less than 8 years to stay on track for the 1,5 target. We don’t have a choice, this GST must be a success and lead to more ambition, action, and equitable implementation of the Paris Agreement.

To this end, we need a Global Stocktake assessing the entirety of the implementation of the Paris Agreement. Thanks to the first submission phase and the first technical dialog, we could already raise some key issues that the guiding questions of the information collection phase were not covering deeply enough. After the first technical dialog, we decided to continue with the same approach:

• As explained before, the implementation of  the Paris Agreement is to protect the most vulnerable and ensure climate justice across the world. On this, deployment of adaptation policies and finance, as well as loss and damages, are central. This is why the GST should dedicate a robust assessment on these topics.
• Also, greenhouse gas emissions have to rapidly decrease and we know the solution: a just transition with a phase-out of fossil fuels for all Parties by 2050, while protecting and restoring our ecosystems to increase our chances to stay on the 1,5 scenario
• Equity was a very important topic in Bonn in June 2022. It is a key element of the GST and its success: without an equitable assessment, both backward and forward-looking, Parties and Non-Parties won’t be able to enhance climate ambition and action in the next years
• To finish, climate policies can not be sustainable without a full respect of human rights and indigenous people rights. This is fundamental and is, to our sense, neither visible or well assessed yet by the GST: we are providing ideas and possibilities to improve the process to this regard.

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Download file: http://GST-Submission-Climate-Action-Network-August-2022.pdf