Independent Global Stocktake

About the Independent Global Stocktake

The Independent Global Stocktake (iGST) is a consortium of civil society actors working together to support the Global Stocktake (GST), the formal process established under the Paris Agreement to periodically take stock of collective progress toward its long term goals.

The iGST aligns the independent community — from modelers and analysts, to campaigners and advocates — so we can push together for a robust GST that empowers countries to take greater climate action. Recognizing the political realities that constrain the formal process, the iGST aims to go beyond the GST in ways that ensures the Stocktake moment generates maximum positive impact.

The iGST welcomes the engagement of others providing advocacy and analysis to motivate countries to take on the commitments needed to combat global warming.

To learn more, please reach out to us at igst-info@climateworks.org or sign up for our email list.

More About the iGST

The landmark Paris Agreement requires assessment of collective progress every five years as part of the regular process to increase the ambition of country climate commitments. This analysis, known as the Global Stocktake (GST), is an essential feature of the Paris Agreement, providing a solid foundation to empower countries to take bolder climate action.

The iGST timeline follows the structure of the formal GST, which occurs in 5-year cycles with the first set to culminate in 2023. Our collective work starts now.


Origins

Inspired by the critical role of the GST, in mid-2018 a group of global partners began to explore what independent researchers and advocates can bring to the table to provide data and analysis, set expectations, and ensure a robust GST. This led to the creation of the iGST, which aims to increase the accuracy, transparency, accountability, and relevance of the official benchmarking process.

Structure

The initiative includes a set of complementary workstreams that serve as spaces for dialogue and launch discrete pieces of work.

These workstreams include regional civil society hubs in Latin America and the Caribbean, West Africa, and Southeast Asia; engagement with the official GST process; and four thematic working groups loosely paralleling each of the main long-term goals of the Paris Agreement (on mitigation, adaptation, and finance, plus an additional group focused on the cross-cutting theme of equity). 

Additional work occurs outside of the workstream structure, such as research currently underway on the links between the GST and national ambition.

About the Working Groups

Adaptation Working Group

The Adaptation Working Group (AWG) explores the intersection of adaptation and the global stocktake. They have launched two major projects: one exploring practical approaches for better integration of the private sector’s climate risk management and adaptation activity information into national and global adaptation stock taking efforts. The second launches a series of perspective papers on how to define the “adequacy and effectiveness” of adaptation action — a still-contested term — and how to assess this in global settings such as the global stocktake.

Finance Working Group

The Finance Working Group (FWG) is an open partnership bringing together expert perspectives from the global north and south on the progress made towards financing climate action. Considering the provision of support to developing countries to mitigate and adapt to climate change and the consistency of finance flows with climate objectives, the FWG aims to support the UNFCCC GST process as well as independently benchmark the official GST. The group is co-chaired by Charlene Watson of the Overseas Development Institute and Raju Chhetri of Prakriti Resources Centre​.​
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Equity Working Group

The Equity Working Group (EWG) brings together thinkers and practitioners, mainly from the Global South, working on equity in the UN climate regime. We aim to help concretize the Paris Agreement’s mandate to conduct the GST “in the light of equity.” The EWG has released a landscape assessment outlining equity considerations across all themes of the global stocktake, as well as targeted briefings such as on how taking a needs-based assessment approach could support a strong stocktake.

Mitigation Working Group

The Mitigation Working Group (MWG) aims to assist the independent community in using the GST as an opportunity to ratchet up real-world progress in climate mitigation. The MWG intends to help facilitate new research, robust discussion, and knowledge exchange to create a stronger community and a more effective and broader mitigation narrative. The group is co-chaired by the Council on Energy, Environment, and Water, and the University of Maryland’s Center for Global Sustainability.
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About the Regional Hubs

West Africa Regional Hub

The iGST West Africa Regional Hub aims to lead advocacy on climate change ambition and to provide support to the global stocktake process in West Africa. The Hub is being created through a consultative and participatory process as a platform that brings together climate advocates, youth led organizations, academics and other climate civil society actors working on climate change in the region to contribute to the different components of the stocktake, especially adaptation. This project is led by West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL) in Burkina Faso and implemented in partnership with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in South Africa.

Southeast Asia Regional Hub

The Southeast Asia Hub (SEA Hub) aims to provide a platform for non-state actors in the Southeast Asia region, to amplify their voices and their activities more visible in the global stocktake process.. Non-state actors, including civil society, businesses, local governments, academia, and NGOs,s play an essential role in the implementation of the global stocktake, including filling information gaps, by providing independent scientific and technical knowledge, which contributes to the “global” representation of information to be assessed in the GST and help to generate momentum for enhancing climate action. The Hub will also focus on ensuring the stocktake is reflected in countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions post-2023. The iGST SEA Hub is a joint effort led by the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC) in the Philippines and the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) in Japan.

Latin America and the Caribbean Regional Hub

The Latin America and the Caribbean Regional Hub (LAC Hub) of the iGST brings together the experience and visions of regional climate advocates to ensure that the global stocktake is as effective and regionally relevant as possible. Led by Iniciativa Climatica de Mexico (ICM) in collaboration with Instituto Clima e Sociedade (iCS) in Brazil and Climate Analytics Caribbean in Trinidad and Tobago, the LAC Hub serves as a platform for mutual learning and knowledge sharing between Latin America and the Caribbean, and other regions.

The LAC Hub is designed to be an open and evolving project, responsive to the needs of its member organizations.

Partners