About the meeting

The third and final meeting will build on the discussions of the first meeting (TD1.1), which took place during the Bonn Climate Change Conference (SB 56) in June 2022, and the second meeting (TD1.2) during the Sharm El-Sheikh Climate Change Conference (COP 27) in November 2022. Further information and the detailed design of TD1.3 will be shared in due course in an information note from the co-facilitators, taking into account the guidance received from Parties, the summary of the TD1.2 discussions and inputs submitted to the GST information portal. While the design and exact numbers are still to be confirmed, approximately 60 seats will be made available for the nine NGO Constituencies and other non-Party stakeholders to bring their expertise to the discussions. To assist the co-facilitators in inviting non-Party stakeholders, the UNFCCC secretariat will launch and conduct a nomination and expression of interest process as follows:

- Admitted NGOs are invited through NGO Constituencies to communicate to the secretariat the names of the representatives.

- Other non-Party stakeholders, including admitted NGO coalitions/initiatives who do not belong to any Constituencies, are invited to express interest in participating by filling in an online form. After the selection process has been finalized, the names and organizations of the selected representatives will be made public.

Although still to be finalized, the numbers and allocation breakdown is expected to be as follows:

- 36 for NGO Constituencies; and

- 24 for other non-Party stakeholders

These non-Party stakeholders will be engaging with technical experts from Party delegations across the roundtables. Each of these non-Party stakeholders will participate in only one of the roundtables to encourage a broad set of participation. Please note that to ensure consistency in the dialogues, these same representatives will be invited and expected to engage in other activities of the TD1.3, such as a World Café. It is expected that only the invited non-Party stakeholders will be given the opportunity to actively participate and speak during the roundtables as at TD1.1, whereas a World Café and poster session would be more open to other participants registered for the subsidiary body sessions, subject to space constraints. Further details will be provided in the information note from the co-facilitators.

Recalling through the Glasgow Climate Pact from COP 26, Parties welcomed the improved Marrakech Partnership for Global Climate Action for enhancing ambition 2021-2025 from the High-Level Champions, where supporting the GST is identified as one of the main priorities and uses the GST process timelines to build and plan around, and also encouraged the High-Level Champions to support the effective participation of non-Party stakeholders in the GST. The secretariat will collaborate with the High-Level Champions in the expression of interest process in support of the co-facilitators.

Process and timelines

For the nine NGO Constituencies, the secretariat will contact the NGO Constituency Focal Points separately on the nomination process. Please send any inquiries to cool@unfccc.int.

For other non-Party stakeholders:

1. Expression of interest to be submitted electronically using this on-line form.
2. The period of the expression of interest will end on Tuesday, 11 April 23:59 CEST.
3. Efforts will be made to finalize the process expeditiously and inform the selected participants as soon as possible, and three to four weeks prior to the start of the technical dialogue. Please send any inquires to gst_nps@unfccc.int. 

Selection criteria

The following criteria will be applied when assessing and selecting non-Party stakeholders:

1. Expertise and experience
2. Regional balance
3. Gender balance

The co-facilitators encourage balanced participation across multiple formats to facilitate the greatest amount of interactive exchange between participants. The co-facilitators also aim to facilitate continuity and flexibility in participation across the three meetings of the first technical dialogue. The co-facilitators encourage all non-Party stakeholders to express interest, however, may give preference to non-Party stakeholders who have not participated previously, so as to bring in a diverse set of perspectives across the technical dialogue. As such, and considering the above criteria, multiple questions may be asked throughout the on-line form.

Overview of the Roundtables

As mentioned, further information on the number of roundtables and the detailed design of TD1.3 will be shared in due course in an information note from the co‑facilitators, taking into account the guidance received from Parties, the summary of the TD1.2 discussions and inputs submitted to the GST information portal. TD1.3 will build on previous discussions and the topics of TD1.2 are described below for reference to assist with the expression of interest process, noting that further details of the roundtables will be provided at a later stage.

- Roundtable 1 – Mitigation, including response measures: This roundtable may aim to move from what to how, from models and pledges to implementation and action, taking into account barriers, challenges and opportunities. These discussions should develop findings in response to the SB Chairs’ guiding question 10: In order to achieve the goals defined in Articles 2.1(a) and 4.1 of the Paris Agreement: a) What further action is required? b) What are the barriers and challenges, and how can they be addressed at national, regional and international levels? c) What are the opportunities, good practices, lessons learned and success stories?

- Roundtable 2 - Adaptation, including Loss and Damage: This roundtable may aim to to discuss and assess collective progress on Article 7.14, paragraphs a to c, and loss and damage, develop key findings that can inform later stages of the GST1 where we will discuss the overall progress made in achieving the global goal on adaptation (Art 7.14 d), which will also benefit from more information from the Glasgow work programme, and move from “what” to “how”, from knowledge generation to implementation, taking into account barriers, challenges and opportunities. These discussions should develop findings in response to the SB Chairs’ guiding question 10: In order to achieve the goals defined in Articles 2.1(a) and 4.1 of the Paris Agreement: a) What further action is required?, b) What are the barriers and challenges, and how can they be addressed at national, regional and international levels? c) What are the opportunities, good practices, lessons learned and success stories?

- Roundtable 3 - Means of Implementation and Support, including finance, technology and capacity building: This roundtable may take stock of implementation of the Paris Agreement to assess collective progress towards making finance flows consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development (Article 2.1 c), as well as how support for developing countries across finance, technology and capacity building (Articles 9, 10, and 11) has enabled collective progress towards the long-term temperature goal (Article 2.1 a) and increased the ability to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change and foster climate resilience and low greenhouse gas emissions development, in a manner that does not threaten food production (Article 2.1 b). It may focus its discussions on existing areas of support, emerging needs, and further efforts to align and scale up support to meet Paris Agreement goals. Discussions at this roundtable may take into account the progress towards the goal of developed countries of mobilizing jointly USD 100 billion annually by 2020 and continuing through 2025 to address the needs of developing countries, from a wide variety of sources, and in the context of meaningful mitigation actions and transparency on implementation (paragraph 53 of decision 1/CP.21 and Article 9).

- Roundtable 4 – Integrated and holistic approaches: This roundtable may focus on integrated and holistic approaches to answer the questions: What does the transformation to low-GHG emissions and climate resilient development entail and how can we enable greater progress? How do stakeholders, at various levels, address mitigation, adaptation, means of implementation and support, as well as efforts on loss and damage and the implications of response measures, in an integrated and holistic way?

Norms for discussion at the roundtables

- Participants of roundtables are charged with performing an assessment of collective progress and identifying opportunities for enhanced action and support.

- The dialogue should advance knowledge that can inform Parties and non-Party stakeholders in enhancing their actions and support

- Discussions should be technical, focused on data and information, and based on the best available science.

- Participants are encouraged to engage in a conversation and dialogue with one another, rather than provide prepared statements.

- Throughout the technical dialogue, all knowledge and experiences should be respected as contributions to the discussion, in order to promote cooperation and build trust.