Questions for consideration

• Would the advantages of a new adaptation finance goal outweigh its drawbacks?
• How can a focus on means of implementation in the GGA negotiations be channeled most effectively to increase the provision of adaptation finance?
• Should Parties decide to move forward with a new adaptation finance goal, where could those discussions be most usefully pursued?

The post Issues and Options: Centering Adaptation Finance at COP30 appeared first on Center for Climate and Energy Solutions.

The post Technology Implementation Programme: Negotiations State of Play (Discussion Paper) appeared first on Center for Climate and Energy Solutions.

Join C2ES for a webinar that will examine how the enhanced transparency framework under the Paris Agreement can be leveraged to raise climate ambition and accelerate climate action. We will focus in particular on how to make best use of the presentations each country must make every two years on progress toward achieving their climate targets.

The conversation will be moderated by C2ES Vice President for International Strategies Kaveh Guilanpour.

We have recently published a paper on this topic, accessible here.

The post Leveraging the Paris Agreement’s enhanced transparency framework to enhance ambition and accelerate implementation appeared first on Center for Climate and Energy Solutions.

• A Vision for the 2025-2030 Action Agenda
  https://www.c2es.org/document/a-vision-for-the-2025-2030-action-agenda/ 
• Delivering on the Targets and Signals from the First Global Stocktake, July 2025
  https://www.c2es.org/document/delivering-on-the-targets-and-signals-from-the-first-global-stocktake/
• Achieving a More Effective UNFCCC Process, July 2025
  https://www.c2es.org/document/achieving-a-more-effective-unfccc-process/
• Capitalizing On Transparency to Accelerate Climate Action, April 2025
  https://www.c2es.org/document/capitalizing-on-transparency-to-accelerate-climate-action-discussion-paper/

About the event

​This discussion will explore how utilizing the framework of the outcome of the first global stocktake (GST1) can: help (i) ground the GCAA in taking forward collectively agreed priorities; and (ii) ensure enhanced international cooperation for implementation under the UNFCCC up to 2030 and beyond.

​In light of submissions received in response to the call for input by the Climate High Level Champions (CHLC) on views for the development of a five-year plan for the GCAA, speakers will consider how a 2030 vision for the GCAA could:

• implement and build on the vision the incoming COP30 Presidency set out in its 4th Letter
• strengthen cooperation between Parties and non-Party stakeholders, including through multilateral organizations participating in the GCAA and formal UNFCCC processes, and
• empower international cooperative initiatives to support the achievement of GST1 outcomes, target tracking, and communication of collective progress toward GST targets, increasing the accountability of GST-aligned voluntary action to 2030.

The post A 2030 Vision for the UNFCCC Climate Action Agenda appeared first on Center for Climate and Energy Solutions.

Ten years since the adoption of the Paris Agreement, the Earth continues to warm, and communities around the world are experiencing the accelerating impacts of climate change—from extreme heat and rising seas to food insecurity and displacement. While the Paris Agreement created a durable framework for collective climate ambition, the current pace of implementation is falling short of what the science demands. To achieve the 1.5 degrees C temperature goal of the Paris Agreement, the UN climate regime can and should evolve to drive more effective, cooperative, and impactful climate action. This evolution must be radical in ambition but solutions-oriented in execution—not a revolution, but a strategic evolution and recalibration of the system we already have.

​Join C2ES for a panel discussion that will examine how the United Nations’ broader architecture, across the UNFCCC and beyond, can be leveraged to support the evolution, particularly in the context of intensifying climate risks, shifting geopolitical dynamics, and the growing pressure of financial constraints, including ongoing UN budget cuts. As demands on the multilateral system grow, so too must its ability to deliver.

​The 30th Conference of Parties in Belém could present a critical opportunity to reorient the UNFCCC toward delivering transformational climate action. Taking place after full turn of the Paris Agreement’s ambition cycle, following the completion of first global stocktake as well as the submission of biennial transparency reports and new nationally determined contributions, COP30 should serve as a moment for reckoning and reflection. This panel discussion will explore how to make COP30 not just another checkpoint, but a catalyst for strengthening implementation and enhancing international cooperation across the UN climate regime.

At 16:30, please join us for a second panel event on A 2030 Vision for the Climate Action Agenda at the UNFCCC, with a networking reception to follow, in the same location. Both events will be livestreamed.

Resources

• Achieving a More Effective UNFCCC Process
• Reforming the United Nations for the Future of the Global Climate Regime
• The Proposal for a New Climate Change Council
• The Paris Agreement: A Moment for Reflection

The post Ten Years on From Paris: Does the UN Climate Regime Need Reform? appeared first on Center for Climate and Energy Solutions.

The post Negotiations on the Global Stocktake: State of Play and Key Considerations appeared first on Center for Climate and Energy Solutions.

Context

The 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28 ) marked the conclusion of GST1 and a pivotal moment when Parties agreed specific collective targets and signals.

In accordance with the Paris Agreement, Parties shall specify how the NDC has been informed by the outcomes of the GST and provide this information to facilitate clarity, transparency and understanding (ICTU ) in NDC submissions. This requirement is a critical component of the Paris Agreement’s “ambition cycle,” and the third round of NDCs marks the first time Parties are expected to fulfill it.

This paper analyzes NDCs 3.0 submitted by August 21, 2025, showing inconsistent results in how GST1 has informed NDCs. Some NDCs use the GST1 outcome as a framework, while others barely mention it. The quality of references to GST1 also varies across NDCs and GST1 targets and signals.

83 percent of NDCs reference domestic policies or quantitative measures dedicated to achieving at least one of the GST1 mitigation targets and signals. The most explicitly referenced target across NDCs is accelerating the reduction of emissions from road transport. Additionally, approximately one-third of NDCs explicitly reference: accelerating zero and low-emissions technologies; tripling renewable energy capacity by 2030; and transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems. However, only three percent of NDCs explicitly reference domestic policies or quantitative measures in line with halting and reversing deforestation by 2030. 76 percent of NDCs do not reference phasing out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies, and 59 percent do not reference accelerating efforts toward the phase-down of unabated coal power.

Despite the original February 10, 2025 deadline, the majority of Parties have yet to communicate NDCs 3.0, which are now expected in advance of the UN Secretary-General’s summit in September 2025. This means that Parties yet to submit NDCs 3.0 still have an opportunity to clearly demonstrate how GST1 outcomes have informed their NDCs, providing information that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC ) Secretariat can reflect in its upcoming NDC 3.0 synthesis report.

Looking ahead, strengthening the ambition cycle through future guidance and a robust and effective GST2 is essential to ensuring the Paris Agreement delivers on accelerating climate action. Learning the lessons from how GST1 impacts NDC 3.0 will be critical to that.

The post NDCs 3.0: How GST Targets and Signals Inform New Commitments appeared first on Center for Climate and Energy Solutions.

The facilitative multilateral consideration of progress (FMCP) is much more than a niche reporting process—it is a powerful forum to share national climate action success stories and uncover opportunities for enhanced international cooperation among countries to overcome challenges to implementation. As the number of Parties participating in FMCP grows, it should be given space and attention in line with its potential to drive narratives of progress.

The post Harnessing the Opportunities of the Facilitative Multilateral Consideration of Progress (FMCP) for Ambition appeared first on Center for Climate and Energy Solutions.

As global temperatures continue to rise and the Paris Agreement’s 1.5 degrees Celsius goal becomes more difficult to achieve, the UNFCCC process could benefit from:

• embracing a continued role for multilateral negotiations at the core of the process
• using the normative power of the UNFCCC strategically and sparingly and more effectively and efficiently
• measuring progress predominantly by reference to the impact of implemented national level policies
• using and improving existing processes created by the Paris Agreement, rather than creating new ones
• focusing as much on enhancing international cooperation to deliver implementation as on increasing formal ambition
• moving toward a non-negotiated common understanding of what the global equilibrium point of net-zero emissions in 2050 would look like
• a thorough and honest analysis of the value add of the UNFCCC process
• celebrating the successes that the Paris Agreement and UNFCCC process have delivered.

For COP30 to succeed, it must: (i) deliver on mandated negotiated items; and (ii) effectively respond to what is likely to be an insufficient collective level of ambition of submitted NDCs, including through better alignment of the action agenda to deliver on what has already been agreed by Parties. COP30 could also usefully celebrate the action of Parties thus far to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement, including through the facilitative multilateral consideration of progress (FMCP).

The COP30 Presidency’s fourth letter, which lays out a vision for an action agenda that is aligned with the outcomes of the first global stoctake, exemplifies a shift toward COPs focusing on enhancing international cooperation and implementation as much as they do on increasing formal ambition. If implemented, this would mark the most significant evolution of the UNFCCC process since the Paris Agreement was adopted.

The post Achieving a More Effective UNFCCC Process appeared first on Center for Climate and Energy Solutions.

The post The 2024 Review of the Warsaw International Mechanism: Considerations for COP30 appeared first on Center for Climate and Energy Solutions.