Edinburgh, 3 September (Argus) — Brazil wants the Cop 28’s global stocktake (GST) decision — which called for tripling renewable capacity and transitioning away from fossil fuels — to act as a roadmap for action from stakeholders including the private sector at the UN Cop 30 climate summit in Belem and beyond, as official negotiations failed to yield progress on implementation in Baku last year.
Cop parties — around 200 countries and jurisdictions — agreed in Dubai in 2023 on the “historic” conclusions of the first GST under the Paris accord. They included a key energy section calling for “tripling renewable energy capacity globally” and “transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems”. The GST is a five-yearly undertaking, measuring progress against Paris Agreement goals and setting the path for the next few years.
The incoming Cop 30 presidency’s use of the GST as the spine for action outside formal negotiations comes after talks on how to implement the decision failed to move forward in Baku and were kicked back to Belem. Parties also disagree on how to respond to the expected lack of ambition from a crucial new round of nationally determined contributions (NDCs) — climate plans — due by September. “We don’t have under the legal structure of the Paris Agreement… a mandate for the Cop to have a dedicated agenda item to respond to NDCs. We haven’t reached yet the level of detail on whether we are going to have a response that is going to incorporate the implementation of the first GST,” Cop 30 officials said. Other important issues, such as the roadmap to push international finance to developing countries to $1.3 /yr are not part of the official agenda either.
But Cop 30 is under pressure to deliver on implementation and the presidency looks to think outside of the negotiations box. Parties have already overcome “some of the most complex steps in negotiations”, Cop 30 climate summit president Andre Correa do Lago said. He now wants to concentrate on what has been agreed and lay out the opportunities arising for the private sector, civil society and for subnational governments, using the so-called Action Agenda.
Brazil wants to build on the over 300 still-active initiatives taken on the sideline of Cops since Paris and ask stakeholders, gathered in 30 groups, to find ways to help implement the GST. “We are using the [GST] to identify global progress and the gaps for the delivery of urgent climate action,” Cop 30 executive director Ana Toni said.
The presidency has identified six thematic axes and 30 objectives linked to specific paragraphs of the GST. The axis on transitioning energy, industry and transport draws on four of the commitments made in the GST — tripling renewables and doubling energy efficiency, accelerating zero and low emission technologies in hard-to-abate sectors, ensuring universal access to energy and transitioning from fossil fuels in a just, orderly and equitable manner. The other axes focus on forests, oceans and biodiversity, agriculture and food systems, resilient cities, infrastructure and water, human and social development, and a cross-cutting axis on finance, technology and capacity building.
Brazil wants its approach to focus on three to four solutions per objective. Taking the example of the tripling renewables and doubling efficiency objective, the presidency suggests stakeholders concentrate on the expansion and resilience of power grids, minerals and metals and efficiency of cooling equipment.
The goal is for stakeholders to start presenting “plans to accelerate solutions” in October. The group looking at solutions to transition away from fossil fuels include oil and gas industry initiatives such as the Oil and Gas Decarbonisation Charter, whose pledges the IEA said were not enough to reach international climate targets. It also includes the Oil and Gas Methane Partnership 2.0 as well as coalitions such as the Powering Past Coal Alliance or civil society organisations such as the Fossil Fuel Non-proliferation Treaty Initiative.
By Caroline Varin
