We, the people gathered at the Global Climate Action Summit, and communities around the world calling for climate action, commit to a climate-safe future for all.
The climate crisis calls for urgent action. We have seen the human impact on health, disease, famine, conflict, refugee crises, and livelihoods. We have seen thousands of people die each year from worsening storms and floods, heat waves, droughts, and wildfires. These impacts disproportionately affect the poor, disadvantaged, and vulnerable.
Now is the time for all leaders to step up and take bold action. Climate change is a threat to all humanity, and it can only be solved by a global cooperative effort. Only together will we transform our communities and energy systems, create employment opportunities and economic prosperity, protect our oceans and natural environment, and complete the transition to a zero-carbon world.
Under the Paris Agreement, the global community has agreed to confront the climate crisis by keeping the rise in global temperature well below 2 degrees C, and pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees.
Delivering this future requires collaborative and transformative action at all levels and in all sectors of society. Recognizing this imperative, over 500 commitments were made at the Global Climate Action Summit. Our continued global leadership includes:
- Over 100 Mayors, state and regional leaders, and CEOs have committed to become emissions neutral by 2050 at the latest and in line with the 1.5 degree goal of the Paris Agreement;
- 488 businesses will set science-based targets to ensure that they are part of the climate solution;
- More than 60 CEOs, state and regional leaders, and mayors are committed to delivering a 100% zero-emission transport future by 2030, putting us on an irreversible road towards decarbonization;
- 38 cities, major businesses, state and regional governments have committed to net-zero carbon buildings, cutting emissions equivalent to more than 50 coal-fired power stations;
- More than 100 indigenous groups, state and local governments, and businesses launched a forest, food and land-focused coalition to deliver 30% of climate solutions needed by 2030;
- Nearly 400 investors, with $32 trillion under management, will work to ensure a low-carbon transformation of the global economy with the urgency required to meet the challenge.
We dedicate our actions, commitments and determination to give national leaders the confidence and assurance needed to increase their ambition and accelerate climate action by 2020 for the security of our planet, now and for generations to come. We call on the national governments of the world to:
STEP-UP AMBITION NOW: Commit to increased climate ambition, including in the form of strong national policies and updated, enhanced Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) by 2020, consistent with what science tells us is needed to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement;
CHART A CLEAR PATH TO YOUR ZERO-CARBON FUTURE: Develop net-zero mid-century emissions plans to inform future NDCs and to guide long-term economic and technological transformation that ensures decent jobs and increasing community resilience;
EMPOWER BOTTOM-UP CLIMATE ACTION: Support and accelerate climate action at the local and regional level, with legislation, regulation, financing and policies that incentivize zero-carbon development, and through inclusive, transparent planning, dialogues and consultations that empower businesses, cities, states, investors, civil society, and individuals.
The whole world has to do more. Building on this positive wave of climate action, there are critical milestones for stepping up ambition by 2020, including the Talanoa Dialogue at COP 24 and the UN Secretary-General’s Climate Summit in 2019. By working together we can do more to transform our politics, our thinking, our values, and our way of life. It is up to all of us to roll back the forces of carbonization. Together we will rise and converge on a new climate-safe agenda for the world.
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