The Paris Agreement combines collective goals with individual countries’ contributions. This hybrid approach does not guarantee that the individual contributions add up to what is required to meet the collective goals. 

The Paris Agreement therefore established the Global Stocktake. Its task is to “assess collective progress” towards achieving the long-term goals of the agreement as of 2023 and every five years thereafter. Corresponding to this role, this paper addresses three questions: 

• What should an effective Global Stocktake look like? 
• What information and data are needed? 
• Is it possible to execute an effective Global Stocktake within the mandate of the Paris Agreement?