Invest In Our Planet
Get Involved in the Paris Agreement’s Global Stocktake
April 19, 2023
For the first time in history, you have a way to directly contribute to the Paris Agreement!
Climate Change is a universal threat. Delayed action on the climate crisis has exacerbated its effects and highlighted the growing need for collective action. In 2015, the Paris Climate Agreement was created to establish international coordination and cooperation on solutions to address climate change. It marked the beginning of action towards the ambitious goals and commitments to get to net-zero emissions by 2050 through drastic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and the provision of financing to assist developing countries in their ability to adapt to climate effects.
In order to achieve these goals, the Paris agreement monitors global progress on a five year basis using national climate action plans from each country as well as the Global Stocktake.
2023 is the first year of implementation for the Global Stocktake. After five years of action, countries and their stakeholders finally have the opportunity to look back at the effectiveness of their policies while also understanding areas to improve upon with more ambitious approaches to environmental legislation.
While the Paris agreement has made momentous strides toward international cooperation, individual and community efforts define the environmental movement and continue to do so today. As such, negotiators of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) have recently recognized the importance of including local voices within the Paris Agreement’s Global Stocktake. Beginning this Earth Month, you and your community have a direct and official way to contribute to the Paris Agreement.
Here is how you can create your very own Stocktake:
- Use the banner, #Stocktake4ClimateEmergency.
This banner allows hundreds of cities, towns and regions to take part in the Global Stocktake by hosting events, turning city halls into local climate Conference of the Parties (COP) venues. These events can take any shape or form, lasting a few hours or even the entire day, but most importantly these events establish local ownership over the Global Stocktake.
Movements begin from the ground up, so having the opportunity to advance climate action and the Paris agreement through community engagement is imperative. Teaming up with Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI), a global network of local and regional governments dedicated to sustainability, EARTHDAY.ORG has created a Guide and Toolkit, to help you successfully host your own local stocktake event. This comes at a perfect time just before the upcoming 2023 UN Climate Conference COP28 on Earth Day.
Our guide and toolkit equips you with all the necessary tools needed to create your own local COP meeting. Within our toolkit, we identify and provide a variety of tools to help get you started including instructions, sample meeting agendas, a fill-in presentation, report template, example questions to ask, and so much more. Our guide helps walk you through all the steps to effectively engage and feature your local community within the international climate change conversation.
- Create an open dialogue in your community.
By engaging your community in your very own climate action COP you can include diverse voices from activists, local officials, and even scientists discussing issues related to you. Local stocktakes of the Paris Agreement are meant to focus on local commitments toward reaching lower emissions levels, local and urban components of a country’s national climate action plan, and climate justice. After having a discussion with your community, ICLEI will report your outcomes to UNFCCC negotiators prior to the UN Climate Conference.
Getting involved with the Paris Agreement is now possible, accessible, and easier than ever. The 2023 UN Climate Conference is quickly approaching, meaning there is no better time than now to hold your very own stocktake event or even find a local stocktake in your area that is already planned. This Earth Day, take advantage of the power of your voice and commit locally to the Paris Agreement.
