Ever felt dizzy from all the top-down climate decisions? Welcome to the UNFCCC Global Stocktake (GST), where the view from the top can give you vertigo. But don’t worry, ECO has a cure: a strong bottom-up approach that keeps us grounded and ready to leap forward.
Every five years, the GST should help us collectively check how we’re doing on our climate promises and leapfrog to the next level of action to phase out fossil fuels and remain below a global temperature rise of 1.5°C. But here’s the kicker: the process has been so vertical, it’s like staring up at a towering skyscraper from the sidewalk. Time to bring this skyscraper down to a more human scale and get everyone involved.
Imagine a sprawling garden where everyone – citizens, local and Indigenous communities, small-holder farmers, frontline environmental defenders, women and gender diverse individuals – get to plant their solutions and nurture them. Meaningful participation and input, rooted in the lived experiences of people already suffering from the devastating impacts of climate change, should take precedence in the GST. Gathering valuable information on challenges and inequalities, especially from marginalised groups and people in vulnerable situations, is critical to securing a just transition and not leaving anyone behind at global level. That’s why ECO says that disaggregated data collection, analysis and use are a must. Climate policies should uplift everyone, respecting and promoting their human rights, and fostering more equitable, just, and effective climate action.
So, here is ECO’s recipe for a rights-based bottom-up approach that will ensure a successful GST process and avoid the disconnect that so many Parties and non-party stakeholders felt between the technical and the political sequences of the first GST: deliberative democracy.
Picture a giant, global brainstorm and inclusive decision-making process where ideas flow and everyone has a voice. A good and tested example of this was outlined on Saturday in the ACE Gallery: the Global Assembly for the next GST. In case dizzy Parties have overlooked it, ECO recommends getting inspired by this structured, multilevel framework that bridges local experiences with global deliberations and ensures inclusive, transparent and balanced decision-making for more equitable and ambitious outcomes. ACE Gallery is still open during this second week of SB60.