Global Stocktake is the vehicle for climate action: U.N. exec
A text is on the table for Global Stocktake negotiators at COP28 to finalize, but so far, it looks dreamy and scattered.
(Dubai, United Arab Emirates) A media session with the U.N. climate change executive secretary Simon Stiell was held today at COP28, where the U.N. executive delivered a statement on the latest negotiations, what’s been finalized and what hasn’t, and what’s next for the negotiators.
The U.N. executive said:“There are many options on the table right now that speak to the phasing out of fossil fuels. It is for the parties to unpick that but come up with a very clear statement that signals the terminal decline of the fossil fuel era as we know it.”
Stiell believes that the key now is to be able to set the right priorities, lives need to be saved and the 1.5C goal kept within reach. As such, COP outcomes must stay front and centre.
The U.N. executive secretary stated that they have the required tools to deliver at the end of next week and that COP28 is able to deliver a “bullet train” to speed up climate action. A key theme for negotiators and a key thing for COP to deliver this year is to engage constructively, in terms of where to go next.
The what, the how, that is the focus of negotiations, he said. But, “what that file text is going to look like, what their decisions are going to look like, are in the hands of parties,” Stiell said.
The U.N. executive secretary also emphasized the importance of filling the gap in the global goal for adaptation plan. Only 50 countries are taking part in the plan, while there are 198 parties taking part in COP28.
Stiell said the loss and damage win had given COP28 a “spring in its step” but urged more countries to join the adaptation goal and other goals.