Thinking ahead to first GST from Africa

From 7 - 9 July 2021, a three-day virtual gathering was organised with the participation of about 30 creative and strategic thinkers and negotiators. Its main purpose was to nurture thinking ahead of the first Global Stocktake from an African perspective, and more generally, a perspective from the global South.

The Global Stocktake (GST) is a critical ‘ratcheting mechanism’ to increase ambition established by Article 14 of the Paris Agreement. The outcomes of the first GST are to inform the next round of climate plans, or Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), to be communicated in 2025. The first GST will start in 2022 and end in 2023.

The workshop aimed to have a rich and open discussion across the main themes, elements and topics of the GST: Mitigation including response measures; Adaptation including Loss & Damage, and Support (finance, technology and capacity) Participants were invited to firstly unpack what the ideal outcome of the GST could be to effectively and appropriately inform countries efforts in developing the next round of NDCs. Secondly, the discussion focused on how to enable this outcome, for instance, what inputs are needed into the GST or what rules, considerations or new forms of international cooperation would make it possible – within the formal process of the first GST and beyond.

We do not summarise the rich discussions of the workshop here, as it was held under the Chatham House Rule, though you can get a flavour of the creative ideas generated in the visual recording made by Tofu Creatives, which you can find on this web-site (and these have no attribution)

The workshop was hosted by Prof. Winkler of the University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa, in collaboration with IDDRI, with the support of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung. A policy brief was written to stimulate discussion at the workshop, and a revised version is available here.