Background

As part of the Global Stocktake at COP28, Parties recognized the important role of international cooperation for addressing climate change and welcomed the “current international cooperative efforts and voluntary initiatives for enhancing climate action and support.” Voluntary cooperative initiatives set a crucial foundation and momentum from which non-state actors, in collaboration with governments, can respond to the global stocktake with the necessary speed and scale.

With “implementation” an increasing focus of international climate policy and within multilateral fora and with an increasing number of voluntary cooperative initiatives, there is a need to better understand these opportunities, successes, challenges, and barriers facing collective action. This assessment of progress towards ambitious targets allows us to learn more about the efforts of various actors and share concrete steps, best practices, and practical solutions. This event aims to serve as a shared learning platform and to shed light on both progress and challenges.

Objectives

• To showcase the benefits collaborative action and non-State actors can bring to achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement and support Parties in delivering ambitious and implementable NDCs, reflecting the positive benefits, “win-wins,” and ambition loop driven by voluntary action;  
• To highlight the “real-world” and systemic barriers and opportunities facing collective and cooperative action;
• To provide a platform for shared learning and discussions of success/challenges;
• To hear perspectives on implementation, transparency, and accountability of cooperative initiatives, from those working directly to support voluntary actions.

Event Agenda