Reflections on the first Global Stocktake of the Paris Agreement

Abstract

This commentary reflects on the first Global Stocktake (GST) under the Paris Agreement on climate change to offer insights for advancing climate actions and informing future GST cycles. The first GST, which concluded at COP28 in 2023, demonstrates the vital importance of a comprehensive, balanced, and inclusive approach to multilateral climate action. The GST's call to transition away from fossil fuels is an important political achievement. Yet, the GST outcome also reveals gaps, shortcomings, and potential dangers ahead. Future climate negotiations, we argue, would benefit from a more integrated, holistic perspective, and more nuanced balancing of ambition and implementation. More needs to be done to protect human rights, increase loss and damage funding, go beyond technological solutions, and address gender-differentiated consequences of climate change. Moreover, a great deal of work, including by nonstate actors, will be required to ensure the first GST translates into real action on the ground.