Global Stocktake

August 07, 2017

INTRODUCTION

The architecture of the Paris Agreement is a hybrid and provides for both bottom-up and top-down elements. While it can be argued that the Agreement predominantly comprises bottom-up elements, marked by countries choosing their own country-specific climate action plans and targets, there are also top down mechanisms to consolidate and strengthen the implementation of the Agreement. One such mechanism is the Global Stocktake (GST) mentioned in Article 14 of the Paris Agreement, which serves as a crucial review exercise to periodically assess collective progress toward the Agreement’s long-term goals, enhance implementation of the Agreement and scale ambition. The Global Stocktake gains further relevance as it is one of the few elements of the Paris Agreement that explicitly talks about taking equity into consideration. The first Global Stocktake will be undertaken in 2023 and every five years there after. This policy brief reviews the status of negotiations with regard to GST, puts forth the design of the Global Stocktake and highlights key policy recommendations.