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Navigating the technical dialogue of the first global stocktake from process to findings

Abstract

The first global stocktake under the Paris Agreement to assess implementation and progress towards achieving its long-term goals was completed in 2023. Here we reflect on the process and findings of the technical dialogue, based on our experience as co-facilitators, and describe innovations in the process, technical findings and evidence-based policy-making following a learning-by-doing approach. We point to the technical dialogue’s 17 key findings, across the topics of context, mitigation, response measures, adaptation, loss and damage, means of implementation and support, and finance flows, which were informed by the best available science and equity considerations. We also consider how the key findings informed the political outcome of the global stocktake and highlight the importance of the technical dialogue for ratcheting up climate ambition across all topics.

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Fig. 1: Process in technical dialogue, as part of overall GST.
Fig. 2: Broad scope of topics in the GST.

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Acknowledgements

We, the authors of this paper, were co-facilitators of the technical dialogue of the first global stocktake. We write in our personal capacities, and our views do not necessarily represent those of national governments or any organizations. While our experience as co-facilitators informs the perspectives that we lay out in this article, we recognize that the technical dialogue was only one part of the overall GST process. That process was Party-driven, with participation of non-Party stakeholders, and the outcome is a result of the work of many people. We thank all participants in the dialogue, the experts and facilitators in world café and roundtables, and the team in the UNFCCC Secretariat (UN Climate Change).The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the US Government. Any errors in this paper are the responsibility of the authors.

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H.W. and F.A. contributed equally to the paper, jointly conceiving, outlining, writing and revising the paper.

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Correspondence to Harald Winkler.

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Nature Climate Change thanks Adelle Thomas, Wolfgang Obergassel and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Winkler, H., Akhtar, F. Navigating the technical dialogue of the first global stocktake from process to findings. Nat. Clim. Chang. 15, 37–43 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-024-02220-x

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