The United Arab Emirates (UAE), in its capacity as the COP28 Presidency-designate, has requested Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Minister Barbara Creecy and her counterpart from Denmark Minister Dan Jørgensen to co-facilitate discussions at a political level among Ministers responsible for climate change ahead of the Global Stockstake (GST) discussions.

Creecy says in a statement issued on July 20 that this assignment acknowledges South Africa’s important role in the progressive development of the multilateral process for addressing climate change.

This co-facilitation role entails reaching out and listening to a representative sample of parties, groups and constituencies to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to hear their views on what they consider the critical elements of the outcomes of the GST.

The Ministers will report back their findings to the UAE ahead of the opening of the United Nations General Assembly, in New York, in September, where the UAE intends to convene a Ministerial meeting on the GST.

As such, the co-facilitation is intended to support the UAE in its efforts to guide the international community towards a successful outcome to the GST at COP28.

The GST is the main mechanism under the UNFCCC’s Paris Agreement to take stock of the collective challenges and opportunities in implementing the Paris Agreement.

The purpose of this is to help inform parties in preparing their next nationally determined contributions to the Paris Agreement, to raise ambition and accelerate climate action, as well as to enhance international cooperation.

This is to ensure that the stocktaking exercise and the forward-looking set of recommendations to parties to be adopted at COP28 is comprehensive, covering all aspects of the convention and the global goals in the Paris Agreement, such as mitigation, adaptation and enabling means of implementation and support for developing countries.

This work needs to be based on the best available science and equity, so that it is evidence-based and fair, as countries are at very different levels of development and have divergent national circumstances.

The first GST is a critical moment in the multilateral process because it provides an opportunity to reflect both on the collective achievements made under the historic Paris Agreement, as well as to agree on course corrections to bring the international community on course to fully meet the global goals.

The best available science, backed by the on-the-ground realities in all parts of the world, clearly show that transformational change is required to address climate change, in the context of sustainable development and just transitions.

The GST is the key moment for such strategic-level discussions. Its value lies in its facilitative, non-punitive and collective nature, because the focus is on stocktaking and setting the direction for enhanced climate action at the collective level as an international community, where all stakeholders need to work together to address a common threat.

This appointment does not have consequences for South Africa’s country role in the climate negotiations. Our country will develop a negotiating mandate for consideration by Cabinet by the third quarter of this year.

This mandate will then inform our country position in the negotiations and our discussions with fellow negotiators in the African Group and the G77 plus China, Creecy explained.