How to Turn the Global Stocktake into Actual Policymaking

In the policy paper "How can the Global Stocktake be leveraged for enhanced climate action?", now published by the German Environment Agency, researchers from the Wuppertal Institute elaborate on how the results of the Global Stocktake (GST) can be used to advance climate policy at the national level. The focus here is on the definition of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

The authors, Lukas Hermwille, Co-Head of the Transformative Industrial Policy Research Unit, Wolfgang Obergassel, Co-Head of the Global Climate Governance Research Unit, and Carsten Elsner, Researcher in the same Research Unit, have developed recommendations in a multi-stage process: In the first step, they developed a simple communication model and analysed existing and past policy processes. This analysis focused on the question of how international processes such as the GST can be translated into national policies. On this basis, the scientists derived initial recommendations on how the GST results can be used in the discourse on future climate policies – in agenda setting, policy formulation and decision-making in the countries. 

In the next step, the researchers presented the results for discussion at an international online seminar. The paper, supplemented by the results of the discussion and practical examples of successful and unsuccessful approaches to translating scientific findings into political action, has now been published by the Federal Environment Agency.

Overall, the authors advocate a nuanced, strategic approach to communication: GST-related communication should be tailored to the individual phases of the NDC policy process, with specific messages for the various target and interest groups. In addition, the researchers emphasise the need for coordinated efforts to ensure that the results of the GST have an effective impact on national policy discourse.

The policy paper can be downloaded free of charge via the following link.