GST-Design

As of 2023, the so-called "Global Stocktake" will assess collective efforts towards achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement. The Global Stocktake fulfils four essential functions:     

• It is a core element of the ambition raising mechanism of the Paris Agreement.
• It is an echo chamber for the results of the transparency mechanism and thus an essential element to ensure accountability through public scrutiny.
• It can help to continuously reflect the guidance and signal provided from the Paris Agreement and to further differentiate the signal as appropriate.
• Together with other elements of the Paris Agreement it constitutes a "pacemaker" that stimulates and synchronises climate policy processes at the international, national and subnational levels.

On the basis of a functional analysis of the Global Stocktake within the legal architecture of the Paris Agreement, the project will develop assessment criteria for a strong, medium or weak configuration of the Global Stocktake. Subsequently, the project will develop a toolset as a blueprint for the Global Stocktake. Doing so, a set of different data sources and indicators will be identified, assessed and eventually selected for application.

Next, methods of data/information aggregation will be developed that allows to meet the mandate of the Global Stocktake – "to assess collective progress" – but still allows a differentiated analysis of transformation challenges so that the above mentioned functions can be fulfilled in a meaningful way.

Finally, the toolset will be tried and tested by applying it for a selection of countries. The outputs of the project will make a practical contribution to further developing and implementing the international climate regime.