NEW DELHI:
There is a need to urgently step up the pace of action if the world is to achieve the Paris Agreement targets and avoid the worst effects of climate change, the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat said.
The Yearbook of Global Climate Action 2019, released on Monday in the run-up to the UN Climate Conference (COP 25) in Madrid in December, takes stock, highlighting climate action success stories and the need for conditions conducive to stepped up climate action. The climate action pathways suggest transformational actions and milestones towards neutrality in key areas, such as energy, industry, transport, human settlements, water, land use, and resilience to the inevitable effects of climate change.
“The bottom line is that active participation by all of us — governments, businesses, investors, regions and more — is needed if we are to overcome the climate emergency we currently face,” UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa said in a statement.
The third edition of 2019 Yearbook and the Pathway documents are comprehensive references for negotiators as they prepare for the COP 25 from December 2 to 13. They are tools for ways to incentivise climate-friendly action and draw economies and people towards ambitious climate action.
“The goals are set, the science is clear, tools are there, and needed actions are defined — let”s all work together in a holistic and integrated manner to make the required changes happen,” said the High-Level Champions.
Complementing the Yearbook and Pathways documents, there is another key knowledge product available for policymakers and the public, the Global Climate Action Portal (NAZCA), which records and recognises climate action from a diverse range of stakeholders. Altogether, they show climate action and how climate action can be undertaken to keep the global temperature rise below 1.5 degrees Celsius and increase resilience to the impacts of climate change.
“Our choices matter. Climate-thoughtful choices add up to meaningful levels of ambition, especially when markets and policymakers recognise these actions and reflect them in products, policy and programmes,” said Espinosa.
The Yearbook makes clear that all actors — government and non-governmental, public and private — need to urgently step up the pace of action if the world is to avoid the worst effects of climate change. The Yearbook calls on governments to increase implementation across all thematic areas to realise multiple benefits; create the conditions needed for non-party action; continue and strengthen the Global Climate Action agenda within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) process post-2020; align finance flows with finance needs; and strengthen the completeness and robustness of the reporting of results from climate action.
