A group of 12 sub-national governments collectively representing more than $4.5 trillion in GDP and 100 million people have signed Under 2 MOU, which is a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that commits them to take leadership on climate action at their level of jurisdiction.
The signatories include: California, Oregon, Vermont and Washington, USA; Acre, Brazil; Baden-Württemberg, Germany; Baja California and Jalisco, Mexico; Catalonia, Spain; Ontario and British Columbia, Canada and Wales, UK.
The agreement identifies action being taken and promotes greater ambition on climate change than is currently being contemplated in the international process leading to the Paris climate change conference at the end of this year.
Each signatory commits to limit emissions to below eighty to ninety-five percent below 1990 levels, or below two metric tons per capita, by 2050 – which is a level of emission reductions believed to be necessary to limit global warming to less than 2°C by the end of this century.
UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres said:
"Science clearly underlines that to stay under a 2 degrees C temperature rise and spare the world and its people from dangerous climate change, a long term aim is needed--one that leads to a deep, decarbonisation of the global economy while triggering the financial and technical support that will assist developing economies to engage, grow and develop. The Under2 initiative supports this reality and I congratulate those launching the initiative including leaders from California and Baden-Wurttemberg for putting their efforts behind this aim of a super low emission future by the second half of the century--it represents yet another positive signal towards a transformational Paris agreement."
This article originally appeared on the UNFCCC Newsroom page. Please find the full press release here.
As we step into 2020, time has come to implement the Paris Agreement and raise climate ambition, but the geopolitical tide seems to be against it. The best way forward at this crucial juncture might be to forge a ‘climate coalition of the willing’ – recognising and streamlining actions of all actors at all levels.
For the first time in the survey’s 10-year outlook, the top five global risks in terms of likelihood are all environmental. They are: extreme weather events, failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation, major natural disasters, major biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse, and human-made environmental damage and disasters.
Millions of people across Sub-Saharan Africa could face grave hunger in the first half of 2020 because of armed conflict, political instability and climate change-linked disasters, a report says.
The report published by the UN World Food Programme (WFP) this month says that the countries affected will require life-saving food assistance and investment to prevent humanitarian catastrophes.
Australia is currently experiencing one of its worst bushfire seasons, with swathes of the southern and eastern coastal regions having been ablaze for weeks. As the fires have spread, there has been extensive media coverage both nationally and internationally documenting – and debating – their impacts. This Carbon Brief overview summarises how the fires – and the political response to them – have been covered by the media.