What do top emitters want from the global stocktake at Cop28?

The first Global Stocktake (GST) since the Paris Agreement that is scheduled to take place in Dubai this December will influence climate action this decade including the likelihood of checking climate devastation. As per the United Nations Environment Programme’s Emissons Gap report 2023 titled “Broken Record” released on Monday, since 2020, the top five greenhouse gas emitters are China followed by US, India, the EU and the Russian Federation. Based on historical emissions (1850 to 2021), the order changes with the US responsible for 19% emissions; China 13%; EU 13%; Russia 5%; and India only 4%.

- Jayashree Nandi

Over the past few months parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change have submitted their opinion and wishlist and what they would like to see in GST. Experts have said that this year’s GST could be so critical that it may be the draft text of the cover decisions for the Dubai climate talks. But the GST submissions show that top emitters have very divergent views on what they wish the stocktake to address. This may open up new fronts of debate at the COP28 climate talks.

The issues remain the same: equity and responsibility; adherence to the Paris goals of 1.5 degrees C and 2 degrees C; the treatment of fossil fuels; and climate finance (including the loss and damage fund). Here’s what the submissions of the US, China, the EU, and India said in their submissions on these issues -- which reflects their expectation from GST.

Equity and responsibility

Expectedly, the US and EU submissions skirt this issue.

EU emphasizes that all Parties need to contribute to climate action, in particular those Parties currently emitting a high share of global GHG emissions at country level or per capita, highlighting that equity should be an enabler of the highest possible ambition for all Parties, in line with the Paris Agreement. US says equity is already reflected throughout the articles of the Paris Agreement and is germane to the entire GST.

China’s submission emphasises the right to development and eradicating poverty for all parties, expressing serious concerns that most developed countries, with the most advanced economic and technological resources and capacities gained since industrial revolution, whose emissions already peaked decades ago, have committed to achieving net zero GHG emissions only by 2050 instead of much earlier.