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.
Initiated in 2015, the French Ministry for the Armed Forces organized the first international conference “Defence and climate: what are the stakes?”. Since then, the Ministry has been constantly adapting and developing its capacity of anticipation.
On 25 January 2019, the UN Security Council held an open debate to discuss the security implications of climate-related disaster events. The meeting, initiated by the Dominican Republic, underscored the global nature of climate-related disasters. Most speakers highlighted the need for better climate risk management as an important contribution to safeguarding international peace and security. The debate marks the beginning of a year in which climate security ranks high on the UN’s agenda.
Today, Friday 25th January 2019, the UN Security Council will hold an open debate addressing the impacts of climate-related disasters on international peace and security (at 4pm CET and 10am EST). President Danilo Medina of the Dominican Republic will chair the meeting, which will also include the participation of several member states at ministerial level.
The unabated growth of natural resource consumption raises risks that we will outstrip the capacities of ecosystems and governance institutions. At the same time, to achieve important global goals related to poverty alleviation, public health, equity and economic development such as those embodied in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), we will simultaneously need more resources and better management of natural resources everywhere.