Intervention by Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice at the Global Stocktake’s Closing Plenary During COP27

This statement is delivered on behalf of the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice. 

Delivered by: Victor Menotti, Civil Society Equity Review

DCJ and CSER, which includes CANI and TUNGO sisters and brothers from ITUC.

Executive Secretary has reminded us GST (Global Stocktake) is an accountability exercise to see where we stand and to inform more ambitious actions

IPCC has made clear what’s left of our shrinking carbon budget but it is not their role to say how to manage the remaining atmospheric space. 

Parties must do this, but they are not under the Paris Agreement. We still face a free-for-all with the biggest free-riders speeding us over the cliff. It’s the classic scenario anyone learns about in any basic economics class. 

Equitably sharing the remaining carbon space for a global just transition requires a fair shares frame to inform more ambitious actions from all.  Civil Society has proposed its methodology and several Parties have tabled their own methodologies for determining fair shares.

Next year’s political dialogue must reflect on the relevant technical data to transparently assess countries’ CBDR-RC. Operationalizing equity requires deep political discussion and very difficult decisions on which criteria are acceptable as equitable by all Parties to determine fair shares.

So we hope GST Co-Facilitators’ report includes references to the relevant data in used our submissions and repeated in our interventions, such as:

Dependence on fossil fuels by data on:

  • GDP from fossil fuels
  • Government revenue from fossil fuels
  • Employment percentages from fossil fuels

Capabilities to transition equitably such as:

  • Non-fossil fuel economic prospects for diversification
  • Fiscal and monetary health
  • Hard currency reserves to access foreign technologies
  • Education and training systems

That’s why Parties must responsibly manage the carbon budget, as prudently as your own governments’ national budgets, or, perhaps better, your own personal household budgets, precisely because you know all your loved ones depend on you.