ECO has been waiting for the new Global Stocktake draft text like a child waits for their birthday presents. And finally, yesterday morning, the overly caffeinated and highly sleep-deprived co-facilitators ended our wait. The present ECO was hoping for was a decision to phase out fossil fuels and triple renewables. But ECO is not a spoiled child who always gets what it wants. Despite the disappointment, we can still help you with some constructive feedback to deliver a better gift before end of COP28.
Here are our seven key points on the GST draft text:
- Getting the urgency memo: We need further action to accelerate the decline of fossil fuels. Not in 20 or 30 years, but in this decade.
- Tripling to substitute: Great to see that you have language on tripling renewable energy by 2030. But let’s spice up the renewables language by not just tripling them, but also making it clear that renewables will replace fossil fuels while respecting human rights and nature.
- Para 36 – Weak Sauce Alert on differentiation: The text should unequivocally state that developed countries must take the lead in phasing out all fossil fuels and tripling renewables.
- Don’t be stingy: The energy package (FFPO, EE, RE) needs to include support language that makes it clear to developing countries that the transition will be enabled by grant-based public climate finance, in line with PA 4.5.
- Burn paragraph 35 (b), option 1, not fossil fuels: We must reject dangerous distractions. Seriously!
- No more fossil fuel freebies: The era of ‘inefficient’ and ‘mid-term’ fossil fuel subsidies is over. End it all, and end it immediately.
- Get the NDCs language right: Provide stronger language on enhanced NDCs, in line with Article 2, before COP30.