We all know Egyptians love football. They are proud of their national team. And their country’s star player? Why of course it’s the team captain – Mohamed Salah, goal scoring phenomenon and international superstar.
Why are we talking about football, you ask? Well, as the saying goes, football is a game of two halves. And so is the Global Stocktake. The first half is the technical dialogue, which informs the second half: the political discussion. COP27 sits between these two halves. It’s the halftime break of the GST, exactly halfway between when it began back at COP26 in Glasgow twelve months ago and when it will end next year in Dubai at COP28.
A halftime break in football is a key turning point in the match. It’s when the captain can rouse their team to fight harder and to score more goals. For the GST, the goals aren’t balls at the back of the net. The goals are won if we can shift the UNFCCC into ‘crisis implementation’ mode and away from a business-as-usual forum that is stuck in divisive politics and negotiations. The goals are if the GST can commit all Parties to further action, including: enhanced and rights-based NDCs, phase out of all fossil fuels by 2050, accelerate concrete action to protect and restore ecosystems, and concretely step up finance, including for adaptation and loss and damage at the scale needed.
The first half of the GST has seen good technical dialogues that are critical for understanding the failures of meeting the Paris Agreement and what we can do about it. But right now, the GST is losing the match. We’re not scoring goals. So, we need COP27 to give the GST an inspiring half-time pep talk.
If the GST is going to rise to the challenge of the second half – building political momentum for transformational outcomes to accelerate action to meet the Paris Agreement – we’re going to need COP27 to:
Use the Joint Contact Group to have a strong decision text by COP27 with political support and a common vision for the GST outcome between Parties.
Develop a GST work plan for the 2023 year, that could be under the lead of Egypt and the UAE, and set the calendar and activities to get an ambitious and efficient GST at COP28.
Allow an inclusive, discussion-oriented and equitable technical dialogue in collaboration with the co-facilitators, Parties and non-parties participants.
Political leadership is key for the success of the GST. This is the challenge at COP27. We might not have Mo Salah in Sharm El Sheikh to help us along the way, but we do have all of you hard working negotiators – and us, the strong voice of global civil society. Together we can turn the GST around, and take it to the victory we need for the planet.