Campaign showcases wealth of climate action by companies, investors, cities and regions

Climate action by cities and companies and by regions and investors is continuing strongly since the Paris climate change conference with some 50 new actions posted on the UN portal which was set up to showcase private sector and local authority ambition.
 

Ranging from South African hospitals group Netcare Ltd to Dutch banking group ING, the new commitments join over 11,000 already registered on NAZCA -- the Non-State Actor Zone for Climate Action, established in 2014 at the request of the Government of Peru.

The news comes as the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which is managing the portal, also launched a global public awareness campaign to spotlight these game-changing commitments, including the many which are happening in the developing world.

For example, the city of Puebla in Mexico committed and registered on NAZCA its aim to reduce emissions by 90% by 2050. And India’s Tata Motors has committed to reduce CO2 emissions by 50% by 2020 and procure 100 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources.

It is hoped the new campaign – entitled ‘We’re Accelerating Climate Action’- will encourage more entities to consider how they can make climate action commitments working with partners like We Mean Business and data providers to the NAZCA portal including CDP, the Climate Group and ICLEI’s Carbon Registry.

Other data providers include Investors on Climate Change; the UN Global Compact; the Covenant of Mayors and the Climate Bonds Initiative.

With the next UN climate conference to be held in Morocco in November this year, companies, investors, cities, regions and provinces from the global south and Africa are especially welcome.

In the run up to and during the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) to the UNFCCC, held in Paris last December, unprecedented momentum was triggered among individual and cooperative initiatives in support of governments and the realizing of the landmark Paris Climate Change Agreement.

The NAZCA portal and its registered commitments dovetailed with a range of larger ones showcased under the related Lima-Paris Action Agenda (LPAA)—an initiative of the Governments of France and Peru, the Office of the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the UNFCCC.

Under the LPAA, 70 mainly large cooperative initiatives, from ‘Removing Commodity Driven Deforestation from all Supply Chains by 2020’ to the ‘International Solar Alliance’ which aims to mobilize $1trillion by 2030, have also registered their commitments on NAZCA.

During COP 21, all these initiatives presented their commitments during 12 "focus days", alongside some of the most significant commitments from individual companies and local leaders registered under NAZCA.

Information relating to the LPAA cooperative initiatives was provided by the secretariats of these initiatives through the LPAA partners -- Peru, France and the UN.

Ségolène Royal, President of the 21^st Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC and the French Minister of Environment, Energy and the Sea, said: "The Lima-Paris Action Agenda has been critical in contributing to the success of Paris."

“We now need to make the multiple initiatives thrive and the NAZCA portal will be an essential tool to drive the momentum. I encourage all non-State actors to make the most of it," she added.

Hakima El Haité, Morocco’s Minister of the Environment, said: “The Climate Action Agenda does more than complement climate policies. With its bottom-up dynamic, it makes the entire society an agent of change and this is exactly what we need”.

By formally registering their aims and ambitions on the UN’s NAZCA online portal, non-Party actors can demonstrate climate ambition that can support governments to achieve their central objectives agreed at under the Paris Agreement, namely to peak emissions as soon as possible and put to the world firmly on a path towards zero carbon and resilience.

Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said: “More than 11,000 cities, regions, companies, investors, and civil society organizations have so far pledged actions with many of these now logged under NAZCA”.

“The mobilization, commitment and ambition of so many so-called ‘non-party stakeholders’ was a key to the success of realizing the Paris Agreement. Moving and motivating even higher ambition from those already committed and broadening the numbers and geography to ever more cities and companies will be a crucial key in assisting governments in implementing their aims swiftly, sustainably and at scale,” she added.

The new ‘We’re Accelerating Climate Action’ campaign also builds on the success of the Paris Pledge for Action (L’Appel de Paris) launched by the UN and the government of France immediately after the conclusion of the Paris Climate Change Agreement, adopted by 195 countries and now signed by 176 countries and the EU.

The Paris Pledge; launched as the gavel went down in Paris and supported by several organizations including Cambridge University’s Institute for Sustainability Leadership, underlined just how many non-party stakeholders welcomed the ambition and pathways laid out in the Paris Agreement and their willingness to work with governments to implement its aims.