G77 and China Opening Statement at the TD1.3. Bonn, Germany, 6 June 2023.
The G77 and China grants high priority to the Global Stocktake. It must be carried out in a holistic, balanced, integrated and facilitative manner, considering all thematic areas, and in light of equity and the best available science.
It must enable us to look backwards at implementation gaps and challenges, including those related to pre-2020. The Group underscores the critical importance of substantive attention to this area, in order to sufficiently fulfill the mandate of the GST and of assessing collective progress. Our group expects to see this front and center in the outcome of the GST.
The GST should also look forward in terms of identifying implementation and ambition opportunities to inform Parties in updating and enhancing, in a nationally determined manner, their actions and support, and enhancing international cooperation on climate change.
The Group stresses the importance of activities under the Third Part of the Technical Dialogue of the GST and looks forward to a robust and substantive CMA5 decision. In this regard, it notes that the output of the Technical Dialogue informs the work of the Joint Contact Group and the High Level Committee in achieving their respective mandates. In this regard, we would suggest that the Co-Facilitators take into consideration the structure of elements or outline for the GST decision that the Joint Contact Group is expected to develop so that the outputs and their format coming from the Technical Dialogue will be fit for purpose for the political phase of the GST.
This implies that the discussions in the Technical Dialogue as part of the technical assessment phase should focus on enabling Parties to collectively answer the questions of where we are, how we got here, and where do we go from here in terms of the collective progress in the implementation of the Paris Agreement.
We look forward to being able to discern and discuss any emerging messages and findings that may be derived from the information inputs assessed during the Technical Dialogue, together with other Parties and non-Party stakeholders. Key issues for the Group to be addressed in this regard include, for example, the reflection and operationalization of equity; reflection of the best available science; the importance of the provision of the means of implementation from developed to developing countries to enhance their climate actions; contextualizing collective progress and ambition on sustainable development, the right to development, and the eradication of poverty in an integrated and holistic manner; the progress in implementation and ambition in, and the linkages between, mitigation, adaptation, loss and damage, response measures, and the means of implementation.
To do so, it would be necessary that the modalities of rhe GST TD1.3 are done in a way that provides balanced treatment across all the thematic areas of the GST and also enables the perspectives that have been raised by Parties all through out the TD since last year to be properly reflected. For example, equity is reflected in only mitigation – we would note that equity should be considered in all of the thematic areas as it is, together with the best avalable science, a key basis of the work of the GST. Finance is imbalanced in its focus on only Art. 2.1c.
It should be noted that a number of Parties from the Group have expresssed concerns about the modalities and how these reflect the balance of the thematic areas for the GST. For example, as the Chair of the G77 indicated at the opening plenary of the SBs, pre-2020 issues are of great importance to be considered in the GST. The evolution and recognition of the institutional role of loss and damage issues should also be reflected in the GST. The importance of the means of implementation should also have been fully reflected.
The Technical Dialogue should assist us identify and assess the implementation and ambition gaps, barriers, and opportunities that exist with respect to climate action and international cooperation under the Paris Agreement, so that we can collectively progress in meeting its goals. In this context, while stressing that the IPCC findings are multilaterally agreed, other information could also be noted as useful for us to consider. We also need to have an assessment of the enablers – finance, technology transfer, capacity building – and the extent to which they have been provided, the costs and support needs that should be addressed. This is particularly important with respect to adaptation in terms of progress towards achievement of the GGA. We also need to have information about the landscape of international cooperation and the barriers and opportunities to it – including looking at barriers such as unilateral measures. We also need to know what the status is of what is happening in other workstreams. Gaps in terms of information and substance need to be addressed.
Finally, the Group thinks that this first GST can be a positive turning point for our multilateral climate change regime, one that can move us from a period of inadequate action and gaps in implementation of commitments, to a period of hope, rebuilt trust, and enhanced international cooperation. For this hope to turn into reality, it will take all of us as Parties, with the support of non-Party stakeholders, to work together in good faith to achieve the outcome that the world expects from us through this GST.