On 26 October, ICLEI Member Glasgow City Council (Scotland) brought together local communities and business representatives to discuss Glasgow’s progress on its local climate targets and hear their ideas about a way forward to a just, sustainable city. The effort came as an official contribution to the first-ever United Nations global stocktake, a process for countries and non-state actors to assess collective progress towards meeting the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement. The global stocktake is set to conclude at the United Nations climate change negotiations (COP28), taking place from 30 November to 13 December in Dubai (UAE).

The Climate Stocktake provided an opportunity for the Council to share the Glasgow Climate Plan and discuss progress towards the city's local climate targets. In the workshop, participants shared their vision of a sustainable Glasgow and worked to demystify language and terminology surrounding the topic to define a more inclusive, collective narrative about what a climate-friendly future could look like for Glasgow and its people. During the exercise, participants shared their breadth of aspirations for a collective future, which included:

• A cycling-friendly city where affordable, reliable and publicly owned green transport is the default option, with very little need for private cars;
• High quality housing, built up rather than out, and aligned with the city's transport hubs with most buildings retrofitted, providing local jobs and saving energy, and old housing stock is fitted with solar panels and batteries for energy storage;
• An abundance of accessible community gardens and wildlife in the city, nature-rich green and blue spaces for everyone to enjoy equally;
• Healthy, affordable, and sustainable food as the most common option for all people in and around Glasgow. Everyone has access to fresh, locally sourced produce, and farmers, land workers and food producers are thriving.

The event concluded with a review of climate terminology and language to engage and mobilise citizens more effectively for daily climate action and the transition towards climate-neutrality.

The results from the local stocktake event will feed into the Global Stocktake. Under the banner of #Stocktake4ClimateEmergency, which was developed by ICLEI, hundreds of cities, towns and regions, including Glasgow, have been invited to host events throughout 2023 that assess progress on local climate targets and provide an official contribution to the Paris Agreement’s Global Stocktake.