UN climate talks must include cities, businesses or risk irrelevance

(Climate Change News, 9 Oct 2019) Comment: Cities, regional governments, businesses and investors have written to the next UN climate presidency calling for their place at the table to be renewed.

By

Climate action from cities, regions, and business helped countries deliver the Paris Agreement in 2015.

Since the first UN Climate Summit in 2014, the “groundswell” of climate action from cities, business, and other actors has reached massive scale. The UN estimates that one in five people live in cities or regions taking climate action, and that the thousands of companies taking action have a combined annual revenue totalling over 40% of GDP.

According to a report issued last month, these kinds of actions, if they continue to expand, have the potential to reduce emissions by one-third in 2030.

Now the role of these actors in the UN climate process is up for renewal.

Following the September UN Climate Action Summit, representatives of world’s leading networks of cities, regional governments, businesses, and investors sent a letter to Cop25 president Carolina Schmidt. The networks praised the Chilean minister’s emphasis on Cop25 as a “time for action.”

External link

Climate Change News, 9 Oct 2019: UN climate talks must include cities, businesses or risk irrelevance