International net-zero economy efforts prodigiously aim to balance “anthropogenic” or human-related emissions—which reached an all-time high in 2023 at 37.4 billion tonnes—under Article 4 of the 2016 Paris Climate Agreement, by 2050. The Paris Agreement aims to meet long-term goals of controlling global temperatures and eradicating poverty by strengthening the global response to climate change, gradually decreasing Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, and removing their sources. It mentions several adaptation and mitigation measures encompassing carbon legislation, capacity-building initiatives, and conserving GHG sinks, such as forests, through sustainable development and financing efforts. The “global response” urged by the agreement strives to ensure the Earth’s average temperature increase is limited to well below 2°C and remains closer to 1.5°C higher than pre-industrial levels to keep global warming under control. It also prescribes the ‘common but differentiated and respective capabilities’ principle, recognising the unique national circumstances and the capabilities of countries at different levels of development in driving climate action. It urges the active participation of signatory nations in the Conferences of the Parties (COPs) that involve assessment measures such as “global stocktakes” or methods to track treaty compliance through nationally determined contributions (NDCs). The COP28 hosted by the United Arab Emirates in December 2023 marked the completion of the first global stocktake, initiated in COP26 in 2021. The Global Stocktake (GST) is an inventory tool prescribed by Article 14 of the Paris Agreement to assess the collective progress towards achieving its long-term goals. It follows the same temporal evaluation pattern followed by the NDCs, with the next assessment scheduled in 2028. They function as an “ambition mechanism” to inspire more audacious and robust national climate action plans. The GST reports provide nations with updated suggestions on the necessary actions to respond to recent circumstances and developments. Global stocktakes create a forum of enhanced transparency, allowing countries to measure their progress, gain access to support, and understand and improve their position relative to other nations facing similar challenges. Identifying good practices and opportunities helps governments create feasible and improved NDCs and long-term low-emission development strategies (LE-LEDS) as a tangible global response to address the gaps in climate action. The COP28 and GST’s primary outcome Report (CMA.5) revealed insufficient progress towards achieving the Paris Agreement’s goals. Evaluating mitigation mechanisms, it noted “significant concern” on GHG emission trajectories and its consequent impact on “narrowing the window for raising ambition”. The pressing nature of climate change demands immediate attention, international consensus, and ubiquitous but equitable international action, as global emissions demonstrated an increase of 1.4 percent or an equivalent of 730 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) in 2022. Though some of the biggest GHG emitters, such as the United States (US) and the European Union (EU), have attained their peak and are now on the decline, 2023 recorded the highest amount of emissions, with the global temperature reaching 1.45 ± 0.12 °C higher than pre-industrial levels. Though the CMA.5 recognises the position of the developing and the least developed nations, it provides generalised instructions to all nations party to the global stocktake. The report thus exposes the Paris Agreement’s most prominent failure to translate its equitable intentions into practical directives. The report calls on parties to undertake mitigation measures such as “accelerating efforts towards the phase-down of unabated coal power” and “transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems”. Still, it fails to account for the current, irreplaceable role of non-renewable energy sources in Emerging Market Economies (EMEs), which poses the biggest challenge to their renewable energy transition. Due to their dependence on coal, the growth of renewable energy capacities of these countries alone cannot translate into a reduction in the use of conventional, fossil-fuel-based energy sources.
