As a key element in the Paris Agreement’s ambition mechanism, countries will engage in the global stocktake every five years to assess countries’ collective progress toward the Agreement’s long-term goals. This stocktaking process is aimed at informing the next round of NDCs in order to increase their level of ambition; it also offers the opportunity to evaluate the need for enhanced action and support.

Read an overview below or our deep dive on Global Stocktake.

Key Rulebook Decisions from COP24

Countries agreed on the process for the global stocktake. The global stocktake will be conducted in three phases:

  1. Information collection and preparation. This phase is an opportunity to gather the information necessary to conduct the stocktake, such as NDCs, scientific studies (including from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), country reports (including transparency reports) and tailored national submissions, and other information. The UNFCCC will prepare multiple synthesis reports to inform the technical assessment.
  2. Technical assessment. This assessment will consist of a series of technical dialogues held over two or three consecutive UN climate conferences. The dialogues will be organized to assess collective progress toward the Paris Agreement’s purpose and long-term goals, including under Article 2.1(a-c) of the Agreement, focused around three themes: mitigation, adaptation and means of implementation and support. Other crosscutting themes such as response measures and loss and damage may be taken into account through the three thematic areas. Co-facilitators of the dialogues will produce summary reports for each of the three thematic areas and provide a cross-cutting factual summary.
  3. Consideration of outputs. This phase will take place at the COP in the year of the stocktake itself (i.e., 2023 and every five years thereafter). During this phase, the findings of the technical assessment will be discussed and presented. This phase will summarize key political messages and identify opportunities for enhancing action and support.

The timeline below outlines the process for the global stocktake, using the first planned stocktake in 2023 as an example.

Remaining Negotiating Mandates

Countries noted in their decision that they may want to refine the procedural and logistical elements of the global stocktake to reflect lessons learned and experience, but they did not specify a date or a timeline for such a review. They also noted the need to reflect on and complement the sources of information for the stocktake.

Learn more about the global stocktake in this video hosted by Christiana Figueres.

 

Read Global Stocktake Deeper Dive