2023 Global Stocktake: Reality Check for COP28

What is the 2023 Global Stocktake? It exposes harsh climate realities ahead of COP28 in Dubai and also presents a clear plan to fix the problems. Tim Reckmann, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Reading Time: 3 minutes

What is the 2023 Global Stocktake? It exposes harsh climate realities ahead of COP28 in Dubai and also presents a clear plan to fix the problems. Tim Reckmann, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Reading Time: 3 minutes

2023 Global Stocktake exposes harsh climate realities ahead of COP28 yet presents a clear plan to fix the problems.

As world leaders assemble for pivotal climate talks at COP28 next month, they collectively confront a harsh wake-up call – according to the 2023 Global Stocktake, current emissions trajectories are badly off-track from Paris Agreement aims, with climate consequences rapidly intensifying. An authoritative review has laid bare the gaps between rhetoric and action. Now, hopes hinge on whether nations face hard truths to catalyze breakthrough ambition.

The 2023 Global Stocktake reality check comes via the landmark global stocktake (GST). The comprehensive audit of climate efforts to date reveals stuttering mitigation efforts, adaptation finance shortfalls, and insufficient cooperation to meet 1.5°C warming limits. Effectively a health check on planetary wellbeing, the GST signals that governments must urgently raise their game.

2023 Global Stocktake Review Process Triggers Reckoning on Climate Promises

Enshrined in the Paris Agreement, the global stocktake obliges countries to regularly tally progress on cutting emissions and mobilizing climate finance. Conducted over 2021-22, expert analysis scrutinized the latest national data alongside up-to-date science on impacts and projections.

The output – the 2023 Global Stocktake is an unambiguous indicator of where the world currently stands to inform increased action. Rather than non-binding pledges, the review introduces accountability by benchmarking actual policy deliverables against long-term temperature goals.

This detailed appraisal covers all key areas – mitigation, adaptation, finance flows, plus loss and damage – providing a 360-degree view of the climate landscape. On mitigation, it reviews the adequacy of emissions reduction policies and clean energy transitions to determine alignment with 1.5C trajectories. For adaptation, it examines resilience-building efforts, analyzing the sufficiency of projects to manage intensifying climate impacts as global heating increases.

Regarding finance, it audits current and projected flows of funding towards developing nations to enable their climate action across both mitigation and adaptation. Loss and damage funding gaps are also quantified as the review estimates needs around irreversible climate effects. Such comprehensive scope enables course correcting across all these interlinked climate priorities in a holistic manner.

Previously, patchy or opaque attention on various elements allowed countries to obscure realities and deflect accountability. But the global stocktake’s systematic measurement of key indicators now shines an unflinching light across all critical areas of climate response. Blindspots can no longer be hidden as each country’s efforts across adaptation, mitigation, and finance domains face illumination under the global microscope. This data-driven scrutiny compels reflection on where existing policies and commitments may fall dangerously short.

Need for Urgent Course Correction by Countries

With the next round of enhanced national climate plans due in 2025, the 2023 Global Stocktake was intended to steer more ambitious commitments in line with 1.5°C trajectories. Instead, its evidence-based findings reveal that temperature rises are on track to shoot past 2.5°C by 2100 – falling catastrophically short.

The synthesis report stresses that the current policies driving this projection must urgently change. Emissions must fall 45% by 2030. Investment to help vulnerable nations adapt remains chronically underfunded. Technical and financial support for developing countries also falls desperately below agreements.

By exposing such uncomfortable realities, the 2023 Global Stocktake signals that genuine transformation cannot wait. The planet urgently requires nations to follow words with concrete plans or risk irreversible climate disruption. COP28 now carries heavy expectations to drive this message home.

Stocktake Raises Ambition at COP28 and Beyond

The summit faces intense pressure to act upon the stocktake’s findings and to spark higher ambition as well as accountability. Hosts in the UAE have proclaimed COP28 will “move from goals to implementation” – an incisive priority, but credibility around vested fossil fuel interests sparks doubts.

Beyond resolute calls for societies to phase down oil, gas, and coal, the 2023 Global Stocktake deficits spotlight upon who pays and how much will dominate negotiations. Wealthy emitters must clarify how they will fulfill the perennially unmet $100 billion climate finance promise to developing nations already struggling with devastating adaptation costs.

Greater transparency around support can rebuild fractured trust at COP28 to enable cooperation on interlinked crisis responses. Finance unlocks emissions cuts plus resilience-building where needs swell, but resources shrink. Progress hinges on tearing down geopolitical barriers, constraining urgent collective action towards sustainable futures before the window closes.

The parties at COP28 must take the 2023 Global Stocktake into consideration when making commitments to urgently reduce carbon emissions globally. Anything less is a crime against the planet – and, ultimately, humanity. 

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