With only six years to go to until 2030 we stand at a critical juncture in the global climate and development agenda.
Less than three months ago, Parties came together at COP28 to adopt the historic UAE Consensus, and with it, deliver a unified vision for course correction with the adoption of the outcome of the first global stocktake. The UAE Consensus provides a roadmap for parties to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement and keep 1.5°C within reach, in the context of sustainable development and of efforts to eradicate poverty. By building on this outcome with renewed momentum, we can raise credibility and trust in our shared process, while underpinning efforts on implementation, strengthening global resilience, and supporting socio-economic development.
Our collective success in this critical decade requires that we meet the urgency of the moment. This demands accelerated action across all pillars of the Paris Agreement, including demonstrable progress on mitigation ambition and implementation, global adaptation, and means of implementation, whilst scaling up and aligning financial flows consistent with just transitions towards low-carbon and climate- resilient development.
At a time when we must move quickly from negotiated text to real world implementation, greater collaboration between COP Presidencies can enhance sustained ambition, aligned with the science and equity. It is in this context that the “Roadmap to Mission 1.5°C” was conceived and the COP Presidencies Troika was established - a mechanism “to significantly enhance international cooperation and the international enabling environment to stimulate ambition in the next round of nationally determined contributions, with a view to enhancing action and implementation over this critical decade and keeping 1.5°C within reach.”
At its core, the Troika will aim to raise and reframe ambition for the development process of the next round of NDCs, which can coherently address all pillars of climate action under the 1.5°C umbrella and be underpinned by strengthened targets and implementation frameworks. With this, the Troika will focus on:
1) Supporting Parties’ nationally-determined ambition and priorities through the implementation of the UAE Consensus
2) Catalyzing the mobilization and provision of technical and financial resources to further stimulate ambition in NDCs
3) Utilizing existing mechanisms, processes and stakeholders, within and outside the UN system, to channel means of implementation and resources, finance, and the international climate finance architecture in support of greater ambition that contributes to sustainable development
To achieve this, the COP28 Presidency and the incoming COP29 and COP30 presidencies will be dedicated to helping enable implementation at scale and accelerate results on the ground.
This is a transformational year, and the development of NDCs must commence now to meet the timeline of submitting 9 to 12 months prior to COP30. As such, the Troika will make an official call on the United Nations Secretary General to create a single coordinated, unified, and effective platform of UN support across agencies that can provide immediate support, including through NDC incubation workshops and tools to align targets with 1.5°C and the UAE Consensus.
The COP Presidencies Troika will host a series of high-level political convenings to assess key barriers to NDC development, with meetings planned at the Petersberg Climate Dialogue, the 60th sessions of the UNFCCC Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) and Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA), the 79th session of the UN General Assembly, and a special session at the opening of COP29. These meeting will focus on the quantity and quality of support needed by Parties to ensure NDCs can deliver 1.5°C-aligned just climate transitions and be used by countries as investment plans, in a nationally-determined manner. In parallel, the COP28, COP29, and COP30 Presidencies will collaborate with key thematic and political platforms, including the G20, to channel existing knowledge and resources towards ambitious NDC development.
We are now squarely in the race to the next round of NDCs, and the timeline for submission is short. As such, the COP Presidencies Troika will continue to advocate strongly for early submissions of high ambition NDCs that decisively take forward the UAE Consensus. High ambition NDCs should include ambition in finance, technology and capacity-building resources to developing countries, in the case of NDCs from developed country-parties. In this context, it is our shared belief that ambition and implementation can come from all parts of the world. As three developing countries representing different geographic regions of our world, the COP28, COP29, and COP30 Presidencies will demonstrate our commitment by submitting 1.5°C-aligned NDCs, guided by the UAE Consensus.
On behalf of the COP Presidencies Troika, we look forward to laying out our shared vision and plan of action at the upcoming Copenhagen Climate Ministerial. The feedback we receive there, and from our subsequent engagement with all Parties, will be critical to our collective success under the Troika.
The Troika presents us all with an unprecedented opportunity to prove that international cooperation can deliver for climate ambition and implementation. Your support will be instrumental to ensuring sustained success from COP28 to COP30 and ushering in a new era of climate action.
Sincerely,
HE Dr. Sultan Al Jaber COP28 President UAE Special Envoy for Climate Change
HE Mukhtar Babayev COP29 Incoming President Minister of Ecology and Natural
Resources, Republic of Azerbaijan
HE Marina Silva Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, Brazil
Vision, objectives, and scope of work
The international community entered COP28 with a clear recognition that the world is off-track to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. With the conclusion of the outcome of the first global stocktake and the decisions under the UAE Consensus, Parties rallied behind a shared understanding of the gaps in global climate action and delivered a unified vision for course correction to keep 1.5°C within reach.
The unprecedented urgency in this critical decade to scale climate action across all pillars of the Paris Agreement requires a renewed impulse towards implementation of Parties’ decisions under the UNFCCC process, while supporting nationally determined ambition. It is in this context that the first GST mandated the “Roadmap to Mission 1.5” through which the COP Presidencies Troika has been established.
As set out in the decision on the Outcome of the first global stocktake, the Road map to Mission 1.5 aims to significantly enhance international cooperation and the international enabling environment to stimulate ambition in the next round of NDCs, with a view to enhancing action and implementation over this critical decade and keeping 1.5°C within reach.1
With the Troika, the UAE, Azerbaijan, and Brazil - Presidencies of COP28, COP29 and COP30 respectively.- aim to build continuity and coherence between Presidencies to ensure momentum going from Dubai Conference into Baku COP in 2024 and beyond into Belem COP in 2025, through an innovative and strategic partnership that can help Parties move from negotiated texts to action and implementation, in order to help put into action what we all have agreed multilaterally. This will include joint initiatives and activities focused on enhanced climate action. At the same time, the Troika will seek to enhance consistency and coherency of existing mechanisms within and outside the UNFCCC process by creating a shared platform for action and set of activities, coordinating and building on existing Presidency initiatives, and advocacy on submissions of 1.5°C - aligned NDCs by early 2025.
As such, the next round of NDCs in 2025 must be informed by the first GST, including backed by accessible, affordable, transparent and inclusive climate finance and other means of implementation and provision of support so to ensure that the world can truly redefine collective ambition and accelerate implementation.
To accelerate implementation at scale, the approach of the Troika will: address all pillars of the Paris Agreement; aim to enable 1.5°C-aligned NDCs, informed by the UAE Consensus, by early 2025 that can be used by countries as investment plans; leverage existing political and sectorial platforms while harnessing the full support and knowledge available across the UN System.
To drive these outcomes, the Troika will take an action and solutions-oriented approach by facilitating a series of targeted activities that can mobilize action and implementation, advocate for the delivery of 1.5°C-aligned NDCs, call on existing UN resources to align on a mechanism to support NDC development, bridge stakeholders, link climate work and knowledge under various political platforms to enhance the NDC development process, and bring more key actors to support multilaterally-agreed goals to drive implementation in critical sectors.
The Troika looks forward to Parties supporting its work and delivering comprehensively on enhanced ambition for NDCs, including means of implementations and notably climate finance, in particular, the NCQG.
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1Decision 1/CMA.5, paragraph 191:
191. Decides to launch, under the guidance of the Presidencies of the fifth, sixth and seventh sessions of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement, a set of activities (“Road map to Mission 1.5”) to significantly enhance international cooperation and the international enabling environment to stimulate ambition in the next round of nationally determined contributions, with a view to enhancing action and implementation over this critical decade and keeping 1.5 °C within reach;