7 December 2023, Dubai UAE - Pacific countries attending the 28th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP28) in Dubai, UAE, have identified the first-ever Global Stocktake (GST) as a priority.
The Global Stocktake is a process for countries and stakeholders to see where they’re collectively making progress towards meeting the goals of the Paris Climate Change Agreement – and where they’re not.
The world knows we are not on track to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. The window for meaningful change is closing, and the time to act is now.
Governments will take a decision on the global stocktake at COP28, which can be leveraged to accelerate ambition in their next round of climate action plans due in 2025.
At the mid-way point of negotiations, we speak with Ms Florence Iautu, Climate Change Negotiator from Vanuatu, who has been following the GST on the state of play.
Question: Talofa Florence, can you just tell us how things are going so far?
Answer: We have the first document for parties to give their reflections on which took a long time to finalise. We have the first iteration that we worked on until last night and today we are waiting on the second one to come out and we will see from there.
For us PSIDS, together with AOSIS, we have been managing well from this being the first GST, we have coordinated well and we have advocated and pushed our key positions in there.
So we are hoping for the next iteration to come out and we will see what the next step will be.
Question: What does this mean for Pacific negotiators?
Answer: For the Pacific and most parties, it’s a waiting game at this stage and because this is the first GST, this is a priority to us because we want the GST to really give guidance on what has been done ever since the Paris agreement was established.
The outcome is very important to us PSIDS because it gives directions on where to and what the different parties need to do to progress the work to address climate change. Our Pacific leaders have all called for a GST that will course correct and ensure our fight for 1.5 is kept alive for our present and future generations.
Question: Where to from here and how do we get there?
Answer: Our leaders have repeatedly echoed the importance of addressing climate change since our Pacific communities are placed at the forefront of climate change impacts. For us in the Pacific, this a matter of life and death and our Pacific region has already declared a climate emergency.
In COP28, we are here with clear instructions from our countries not to back down at these negotiations and to ensure we advocate effectively for our priorities and the needs of our people.
We’re realistic enough to know we’re not going to get everything we want because that’s just the way things are but we also don’t want to go back with nothing. So what we are working towards right now, which is GST outcome that course correct and help our Pacific communities, is something we can take back and it’s definitely something we all want. I remain very hopeful although I know we have a lot of work to do.