Climate Ambition Summit 2020

Climate Ambition Summit 2020

Rome [ENA] Today the United Nations, United Kingdom and France co-hosted the Climate Ambition Summit 2020, in partnership with Chile and Italy. This is a monumental step on the road to the UK-hosted COP26 next November in Glasgow. Leaders across government, business and civil society gathered for this online summit as the world deals with coronavirus. It is more and more urgent to limit the rise in global temperature

to 1.5C degrees. Climate change will not wait. Action must be taken now. At the Climate Ambition Summit 2020, countries set out new and ambitious commitments under the three pillars of the Paris Agreement: mitigation, adaptation and finance commitments. There was no space for general statements. These ambitious commitments took the shape of new Nationally Determined Contributions, Long-Term Strategies setting out a pathway to net zero emissions; climate finance commitments to support the most vulnerable; and ambitious adaptation plans and underlying policies. These commitments will help to build towards a green and resilient recovery from COVID-19.

The impacts of climate change are felt across all of society. The Summit provided a articulate platform for civil society, young people and Indigenous Peoples representatives, many of whom disproportionately experience the impacts of climate change. Climate change must also be tackled by entire systems and United Nations therefore also want to provide a platform for businesses, cities and other non-state actors who are rallying together and collaborating to support governments and accelerate the systemic change required to reduce emissions and build resilience.

12 December 2020 marks the five year anniversary of the adoption of the landmark Paris Agreement at COP21, under the French Presidency. The Agreement brings all signatories together to undertake ambitious efforts to combat climate change and adapt to its effects, with enhanced support to assist developing countries to do so. It charts a new course to accelerate global climate action. It recognises the need to adapt to existing and ongoing climate-caused changes and undertakes to assist the most vulnerable to take action. It also aims to align finance flows with a global pathway to achieving these two objectives.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres stated at the Climate Ambition Summit: “I am pleased to welcome you to the Climate Ambition Summit on the fifth anniversary of the Paris Agreement. Five years after Paris, we are still not going in the right direction. Paris promised to limit temperature rise to as close to 1.5 degrees as possible. But the commitments made in Paris were far from enough to get there. And even those commitments are not being met. Carbon dioxide levels are at record highs. Today, we are 1.2 degrees hotter than before the industrial revolution. If we don’t change course, we may be headed for a catastrophic temperature rise of more than 3 degrees this century.

Can anybody still deny that we are facing a dramatic emergency? That is why today, I call on all leaders worldwide to declare a State of Climate Emergency in their countries until carbon neutrality is reached. Some 38 countries have already done so, recognizing the urgency and the stakes. I urge all others to follow. Dear friends, We are not doomed to fail.”