High Ambition Coalition Ministerial Statement on the Global Stocktake
31 October, 2023
We, Ministers of the High Ambition Coalition, are committed to making the Global Stocktake a turning point in our response to the climate crisis. We recognise that we are not on track to meet the goals set out in the Paris Agreement, despite some important progress.
Globally, greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise. We must correct our course and transition to a low carbon global economy and a more resilient planet. The best available science and equity must form the basis of the Global Stocktake and the following commitments.
We acknowledge that the Paris Agreement has spurred unprecedented global climate action since its entry into force. We have benefitted from the universal submission and enhancement of NDCs, a drastic although uneven increase in adaptation planning and implementation as well as the mobilization of climate finance that has begun to spur mitigation actions and reach frontline communities enduring the increasing impacts of climate change. Nevertheless, we know that our efforts at international cooperation in support of climate action are insufficient.
The findings of the first Global Stocktake have revealed the extent to which our collective efforts have fallen short of what is needed to keep the promise of the Paris Agreement, and to attain the goals we set in a just and equitable manner that safeguards the lives and livelihoods of those enduring the worst of the climate crisis.
Our collective response to this first Global Stocktake will have a disproportionate impact on the likelihood of staying within the 1.5C limit with no overshoot. We acknowledge the weight of the burden we carry to urgently course-correct for the well-being of present and future generations. We must not fail.
Fast tracking the just, equitable and orderly energy transition and slashing emissions before 2030
We see the impacts of the climate crisis at 1.1C, and this deepens our resolve to ensure we do not overshoot 1.5C. In order to do this, the science is clear: we must peak global greenhouse gas emissions before 2025, and reduce them by 43% by 2030, and by 69% by 2040 versus 2019 levels. To do this, we need every country, but in particular major emitters, to revise their existing NDCs and submit their 2035 NDCs before COP30, and for each of those NDCs to be economy wide, cover all greenhouse gases and reflect an equitable 1.5C pathway.
Fossil fuels are at the root of this crisis. We must work together to develop a comprehensive global clean energy access approach to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels, in line with the IPCC’s 1.5C pathway. This plan, which should be reflected in a negotiated decision, should include:
Achieving universal energy access by 2030 through a renewables roll-out, and the provision of international financial support for the poorest;
Ending new coal and the expansion of existing coal mines, and an urgent phase out of coal fired power generation;
Reducing methane emissions to near zero in the fossil fuel sector and by 45% in total by 2030;
More than tripling global renewables capacity by 2030, enabling us to more than double the share of renewable energy in electricity generation;
Doubling the annual rate of energy efficiency improvements across sectors by 2030, and promote energy savings; and
In this context, phase-out fossil fuel production and use.
The emission abatement technologies which currently only exist at limited scale have a minor role to play to reduce emissions mainly from hard to abate sectors. However, they should not be used to delay climate action in sectors such as electricity generation where feasible, effective and cost efficient mitigation alternatives are available, particularly in this critical decade when emissions need to be reduced urgently and dramatically.
We must phase out all international public finance for fossil fuel development and power generation, and as governments, we must demand that fossil fuel producing companies publish trackable transition plans that set out how they’ll cut emissions by 2025, and reach net zero by 2050 - and create the incentives for them to deliver those plans. We committed to phasing out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies two years ago, but too little has been done to deliver on this. All countries, starting with the G20, should identify their subsidies and put a plan in place to remove them, reduce them, or repurpose them, particularly by putting the money saved towards renewables.
Transforming climate finance by delivering on old promises and setting the framework for a new deal on finance
We will not manage this historic global transition without a transformation of finance toward climate action. With an estimated need in the trillions of dollars by 2030 and a widening gap between rich and poor, we need to rapidly accelerate an increase in climate finance, pursue innovation in climate finance, and develop a new deal that responds to the scale of the challenge.
This begins with delivering on our existing promises, including the $100 billion and the doubling of adaptation funding. It also means making the commitment to align financial flows with low-carbon climate resilient development a reality. We must fully replenish the GCF this year, with developed countries striving to increase their previous contributions by at least a third. And we must overcome divisions in order to establish the fund for responding to loss and damage this year, and ensure that it is quickly and adequately capitalized, with funds dispersed in a nationally owned way, so that the world’s vulnerable are no longer bearing the burden of loss and damage alone.
In order to support our efforts the delivery of climate finance must drastically improve, because no country should have to choose between fighting poverty and fighting for our planet, and should be empowered to implement their NDCs, NAPs and other climate actions. We call on all relevant finance institutions, including multilateral development banks, international finance institutions and multilateral funds to urgently scale up the delivery and accessibility of climate finance, especially for adaptation, including by revising their investment plans and portfolios to align with the temperature and resilience goals of the Paris Agreement. We should move as much as possible towards grants and highly concessional instruments for developing countries, aiming to avoid increasing the debt burden that many already face, and to alleviate it by reorienting financing from debt repayment towards investments into sustainable development and climate resilience. Streamlining criteria and processes to ease access to climate finance will also help ensure that finance reaches the frontlines of climate change in a timely, effective way.
Putting nature, people, lives and livelihoods at the heart of climate action
Adaptation will save lives and communities. We must come together to adopt a comprehensive, robust framework for the Global Goal on Adaptation, with targets that identify priorities and enhance adaptation action and support. The framework should include priorities for enhanced action, such as securing the well-being of vulnerable groups, and ensuring ongoing access to food, water and health, and reducing vulnerability to climate related risks. Each country should be formulating and implementing national adaptation plans as soon as possible, or other adaptation policy instruments, and monitoring their implementation. In order to deliver and implement national adaptation planning, support to developing countries is needed, including finance, technology transfer and capacity building.
Protecting, sustainably managing, and restoring ecosystems is vital to climate adaptation as well as mitigation. Halting and reversing forest loss by 2030 at the latest, for example, by halting illegal logging and sustainably managing forest and timber use, will have benefits for both adaptation and mitigation efforts, and we also need to significantly increase our efforts to protect the oceans to achieve the 30 by 30 target. Sustainable food systems and the management of water resources will be vital to increasing resilience.
Mobilizing for an inclusive COP
We support a COP in which under-represented voices, including women, indigenous peoples, children and youth, and disabled people, are given a prominent platform in this process, and which results in urgent and equitable responses to the climate crisis that uphold human rights. We welcome the COP Presidency’s initiatives to expand the links between climate action and health protection and peace preservation.
Every country and every community’s needs must be met. That requires a full and equitable course correction and comprehensive commitments balanced across all pillars of the Paris Agreement with the requisite arrangements for follow up and ensuring accountability.
We urge the COP28 Presidency and High Level Committee to support the commitments set out above as key elements of a new basis for international cooperation on climate action and to bring them forward in Dubai for endorsement by heads of state and government at the World Leaders Summit.
H.E. Leonore Gewessler, Federal Minister for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology, Austria
H.E. Dr. Nemera Mamo Gebeyehu, State Minister, Ministry of Planning and Development of Ethiopia
H.E. Agnès Pannier-Runacher, Minister for the Energy Transition, France
H.E. Hon Kerryne James, Minister for Climate Resilience, the Environment and Renewable Energy, Grenada
H. E. Marco Vinicio Ochoa, Vice Minister Natural Resources and Climate Change, Guatemala
H.E. Eamon Ryan, Minister for Environment, Climate and Communications, Ireland
H.E. Ali Mohamed, Special Climate Change Envoy, Kenya
H.E. John Silk, Minister of Natural Resources and Commerce, Republic of the Marshall Islands
H.E. Rob Jetten, Minister Climate and Energy Policy, the Netherlands
H.E. Toeolesulusulu Cedric P S Schuster, Minister for Natural Resources and Environment and Samoa Tourism Authority, Samoa
H.E. Mr Alioune Ndoye, Ministre de l'Environnement, du Développement Durable et de la Transition Écologique, Senegal
H.E. Bojan Kumar, Minister of the Environment, Climate and Energy, Republic of Slovenia
H.E. Teresa Ribera, Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of Spain and Minister for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, Spain
H.E. Seve Paeniu, Minister of Finance, Tuvalu
H.E. Ralph Regenvanu, Minister of Climate Change Adaptation, Meteorology, Geo-Hazards, Environment, Energy & National Disaster Management Office of the Republic of Vanuatu
H.E. Collins Nzovu, Minister of Green Economy and Environment, Zambia
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Quotes for press from supporting Ministers:
“The High Ambition Coalition is living up to its name. Our Statement emphasizes that we are far off track from meeting the Goals we set for ourselves in the Paris Agreement. Fossil Fuels remain the unaddressed elephant in the room, and the HAC is united in its desire to see the 2023 Global Stocktake acknowledge that Fossil fuels are the root of the climate crisis, and that the only viable course correction is one that accelerates the transition away from fossil fuels, in line with the IPCC’s 1.5C pathway. The Statement is clear that abatement is of limited value right now, and in no way should be used as an excuse to delay action. The Statement also is balanced by not forgetting that both Adaptation and Loss & Damage are also a part of Paris commitments, and so shall feature prominently in the conclusion of the stocktake this year. With this Statement, Vanuatu is proud to be a member of this group of high-ambition countries and will work tirelessly to bring other Parties along with us for a successful outcome at COP28.”
Minister Ralph Regenvanu, Vanuatu
“I fully support the High Ambition Coalition statement on the Global Stocktake. The statement stresses the urgency of cutting emissions and speeding up the transition to a green economy. It talks about protecting people and protecting nature. It calls for an inclusive COP28. I would particularly highlight one line in the statement: ‘We will not manage this historic global transition without a transformation of finance toward climate action.’ This transformation in how we finance climate action is urgent. It will help low-income countries to reduce their emissions and to support their populations to adapt to the ever increasing impacts of climate change.”
Minister Eamon Ryan, Ireland
“It is paramount we keep 1.5°C in reach during this year’s COP28. The Global Stocktake can be a turning point and our last opportunity to do so. It requires us to step up efforts on every front: we need to quicken the transition away from fossil fuels and related subsidies, increase the roll-out of renewables, and implement adaptation plans as soon as possible. Only then will we be able to deliver on the Paris Agreement Goals.”
Minister Rob Jetten, the Netherlands
Contact: hac@highambitioncoalition.org; +447894219638