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.
Colombia’s long-standing internal conflict and the country’s contribution to climate change share one common root cause: land concentration. Policies to strengthen access to land and to ensure sustainable land use might therefore hold the key to promoting peacebuilding in Colombia, while simultaneously reducing emissions.
As disasters wreak havoc all over South Asia, health impacts have increasingly emerged as a major concern for communities and governments in the region. It underscores the need for concerted efforts towards building synergies between the Paris Agreement, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, particularly now, in the post-disaster reconstruction phase, to ensure “building back better” and future disaster prevention.
In the Inner Mongolian county of Horinger, Northwestern China, afforestation efforts have transformed a barren, dusty landscape into a pine forest. Planting trees has diminished the sandstorms, boosted biodiversity and improved the environment generally. As the climate emergency worsens, the potential for planted trees to draw carbon out of the atmosphere is being re-examined. What can the world learn from the Chinese experience with afforestation?
Two events in August 2019 underlined the complexity of paving the way to a climate-neutral world: the publishing of the new IPCC report and the Amazon fires. Both events demand that climate diplomats move beyond a narrowed focus on energy in decarbonisation debates.