The UN High-Level Climate Champions and the Marrakech Partnership are spearheading the race to a cleaner, safer, healthier and more resilient world. Through our campaigns, Race to Resilience and Race to Zero, we are elevating ambition and mobilizing credible climate action among cities, regions, businesses and investors.
Affordable energy organisation, Power for All explains why Decentralised Renewable Energy (DRE) solutions such as solar can help countries expand access to on-site clean, sufficient, affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy.
A new, more holistic approach and transformative initiative is needed to understand water and climate challenges.
Six African countries formally launch the Africa Green Hydrogen Alliance and invite others to join in making their continent a global frontrunner.
Half a year on from COP26, we find ourselves in a stark and unnerving landscape. World leaders and leaders of the real economy must step up and shift from summits to solutions with the urgency that the situation demands.
A new intensive review has distilled from more than 400 scientific papers and reports a comprehensive, actionable set of technologies and practices that can mitigate climate change and contribute to alleviating extreme poverty at the same time.
The scale of emissions-related innovation is welcome but the pace must not be allowed to slow if global shipping is to achieve a 5% zero-emission fuel target by 2030, argue Climate Champion Katharine Palmer and Global Maritime Forum CEO, Johannah Christensen.
Karim Elgendy, Chatham House & Martina Juvara, International Society of City and Regional Planners, explain why the UK’s planning system tool could be central to integrating climate change mitigation and adaptation in cities.
South Africa is proactively responding to climate change through adaptation-focused regulation and green energy investments.
Communities across the world are coming up with locally-led solutions to help communities adapt to the impacts of climate change.
The global campaign to rally leadership and support from businesses, cities, regions, investors for a healthy, resilient, zero carbon recovery.
With every tenth of a degree of warming, we choose to inflict more pain on ourselves, our businesses and communities, our children and their children.
Youth voices are pivotal to elevating climate ambition and driving systemic change. And the Climate Champions are committed to integrating these vital actors into the core of our work.
Never in the history of humankind have we been faced with such a stark choice: to act now or risk losing it all forever.
Written feedback process launches for final part of the 2022 Race to Zero Criteria Consultation process
Convened by the UN Climate Change High-Level Champions, a series of working groups are tackling how to strengthen, update, consolidate and provide additional clarity and transparency for the work of the Race to Zero.
From enhancing the integrity of our campaigns to refining our criteria, the Climate Champions regularly produce reports that help improve, clarify and communicate our work.
A new AI-based study compares cities’ trees and lakes to how much concrete they have, to gauge their ability to respond to climate shocks.
Securing gender equality and women’s full representation in vital negotiations about humanity’s future—like those happening at COP26—rely on fulfilling girls’ basic human rights, argue Kristen P. Patterson, Director, and Carissa Patrone, Program Coordinator, Drawdown Lift, Project Drawdown.
“The opportunities for adapting, while shifting our economy to be prosperous, sustainable and equitable, are plenty – we just have to have the will and the courage to seize these opportunities” – Camille Manning Broome, President and CEO of the Center for Planning Excellence (CPEX) explains why a happy ending for Louisiana is possible.
Argentina’s third largest city Rosario’s urban agriculture program has evolved from an approach to put food on the table, to a tool for job creation, and more recently to a strategy for tackling climate change.
The latest IPCC report and Ukraine crisis show the urgency of phasing out fossil fuels, investing in renewables and developing sustainable agriculture, explains Egyptian UN Climate Change High-Level Champion, Mahmoud Mohieldin.
A sustainable and resilient agricultural sector is key to sub-Saharan Africa’s economic future. Here’s how solar water pumps can help.
Africa’s experience managing e-waste provides interesting approaches for all countries to consider when building an e-waste management system.
Women and girls should be at centre stage in the fight for climate justice and a transformative shift towards a disaster-proof Africa, according to the Africa Consultation on the 66th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW).
“The opportunities for adapting, while shifting our economy to be prosperous, sustainable and equitable, are plenty – we just have to have the will and the courage to seize these opportunities” – Camille Manning Broome, President and CEO of the Center for Planning Excellence (CPEX) explains why a happy ending for Louisiana is possible.
Get the latest news, insights and events from the Race to Zero and Race to Resilience teams straight to your inbox.
For the first time, wind and solar generated more than 10% of electricity globally in 2021, according to latest data.
It will take enormous flexibility, interconnectivity, and storage, but it is possible — explains the latest episode of Inside the Energy Transition.
Tzeporah Berman, Chair of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, explains why “world leaders need to stop dancing around the harsh reality that fossil fuels are the main driver of the climate crisis and publicly endorse the need for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty.”
If we are serious about achieving the dual goals of enhancing access to modern energy services and combating climate change in the long term, all stakeholders need to take decisive action. For lasting change, young people can be an important part of the solution, argues Sarah Hambly, Partnership and Communications Manager, Energy Saving Trust, co-Secretariat, Efficiency for Access.
The share of the world’s population living in cities is expected to rise to 80% by 2050, from 55% now.
A new AI-based study compares cities’ trees and lakes to how much concrete they have, to gauge their ability to respond to climate shocks.
The IPCC’s latest report on climate change impacts, adaptation and vulnerability made it explicit that people living in informal settlements are the most vulnerable urban populations to climate change.
The Philippine’s financial hub, Makati, has joined Cities Race to Resilience. The city’s Mayor, Abigail Binay, explains why joining the campaign has helped the city remain on track with its climate actions in spite of the global pandemic.
Elizabeth Mrema, Executive Secretary, United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity explains why we must put nature at the heart of urban development.
The High Level Champions have convened a group of global leaders with a range of expertise and knowledge across regions and sectors to support the Race to Zero and Race to Resilience.
One third of invertebrate pollinators, such as bees, face extinction globally. Professor Lindsay Jaacks explains why we need to think very carefully about releasing chemicals specifically designed to kill into the environment.
Elizabeth Mrema, Executive Secretary, United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity explains why we must put nature at the heart of urban development.
“I’m not certain how much the natural world will have changed but I am certain that my children or grandchildren will ask me, who did this?” Kenyan climate activist, Elizabeth Wathuti’s letter to world leaders.
A new report commissioned by IUCN and the UNFCCC High Level Champions and steered by a working group of African partners ahead of Climate COP26 in Glasgow provides compelling, quantitative evidence of the positive impacts of regenerative agricultural practices
Massive Attack has commissioned the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research to produce a roadmap for live music, setting out emissions reductions that would make the sector compatible with Paris/1.5C targets.
Burberry has announced a strategy to protect, restore and regenerate nature, which includes expanding support for farming communities, in line with its commitment to become climate-positive by 2040.
One of the world’s most carbon intensive industries, the fashion industry, is joining forces to drive faster, wider emissions reductions across the fashion value chain between now and 2050.
With roughly half of Europe’s steel assets up for reinvestment this decade there is a unique opportunity to kick-start the transition by switching those production assets to zero-emission technologies.
We are now looking to fill a number of key roles in the team to maintain the momentum and further accelerate climate action leading up to COP 27 and beyond.
This week’s spring meetings at the IMF and World Bank must be used as an opportunity for public and private finance leaders to come together and forge new approaches to removing barriers to net zero.
UN Race to Zero and the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) – a net zero alliance responsible for more than $130 trillion in assets in 40 countries across the financial sector, today publishes its Net Zero Financing Roadmaps.
The latest episode of Outrage + Optimism discusses the complexity of financing the fundamental economic transition to a future net-zero world.
Commissioned by the UN High-Level Climate Action Champions, new research with support from Vivid Economics breaks down the numbers behind the where, who and how of the trillions of investments required to meet the net zero goal.
The latest IPCC report and Ukraine crisis show the urgency of phasing out fossil fuels, investing in renewables and developing sustainable agriculture, explains Egyptian UN Climate Change High-Level Champion, Mahmoud Mohieldin.
A sustainable and resilient agricultural sector is key to sub-Saharan Africa’s economic future. Here’s how solar water pumps can help.
The Boston Consulting Group has traced the “true value” of a cookie made from ingredients sourced from multiple countries and sold in the UK. The analysis could influence big value chain decisions, such as sourcing and supplier relationships and product formulation.
A review of 16 university carbon-management schemes showed that none had quantitatively considered how their land might be used to offset emissions. David Werner, Professor in Environmental Systems Modelling, Newcastle University explains why universities should use carbon offsetting strategies for the land under their management.
“We have to address who is leading, and how we are leading, to usher in transformation more quickly and more fully than we’re seeing right now,” Dr Katharine Wilkinson on gender inequality, culture, imagination, and the good and the bad of net zero commitments.
As we celebrate Earth Day and inch closer to COP26, 17 of the world’s greatest environmentalists – scientists, guardians of the planet, leaders, pioneers, activists, adventurers and ambassadors – reflect on their hopes for its outcome.
International climate change and human rights lawyer, Tessa Khan discusses the law’s role in holding governments and companies to account, the limitations of the legal process, and the eroding social license of the fossil fuel industry.
“We will all be watching to see what you will do to promote life, or whether you will promote death and destruction” – founder and exectuive director of the Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice, Catherine Coleman Flower’s letter to world leaders.
The Exponential Roadmap Initiative spoke to UK headquartered multinational consumer goods company Unilever to find out about the actions they are taking to help halve global emissions by 2030.
The global campaign to rally leadership and support from businesses, cities, regions, investors for a healthy, resilient, zero carbon recovery.
Current research at the Centre for Climate Repair at Cambridge University tackles how we can reinvigorate the world’s largest potential carbon sinks: oceans.
Seafood firms can reduce their impact on climate and the oceans – and in doing so can ensure they have a long-term thriving business, writes Nigel Topping, UN High Level Champion for Climate Action at COP26.
Legendary marine biologist, Chair and President of Mission Blue, and National Geographic Explorer, Dr Sylvia Earle explains what it will take to restore the health of our oceans after decades of deep decline.
Ocean-based solutions not only mitigate climate change but play a large role in climate adaptation. Opinion by Project Drawdown’s Emilia Jankowska, Mamta Mehra and Chad Frischmann.
Nonprofit art hub for sustainability, ReGenesis and the UN Climate Champions convened a group of artists, representing a range of disciplines, to open up the conversation on climate and help make it accessible to everyone.
Gender equality is central to the SDGs. Here’s how can we address the gender disparity in climate entrepreneurship.
With a remit set out in law to be “the guardian of the interests of future generations in Wales”, Sophie Howe is the world’s only Future Generations Commissioner. At COP26 she discusses how her interventions have secured fundamental changes to land use planning policy, major transport schemes and Government policy on housing – ensuring that decisions taken today are fit for the future.
We need to recognize the contributions of women as decision makers, stakeholders, educators, and experts across borders and sectors to drive long-term solutions. It’s time we realize women are the missing piece in our global efforts to protect and regenerate our planet, argues Mariah Levin & Gwendoline de Ganay, World Economic Forum.
Covid has hit culture hard. In Glasgow, half of the city’s 160 cultural organizations have no plans to reopen due to financial distress. It’s time to come up with a master plan to save the arts, which allows the industry to more easily deacarbonize, says Annika Ericsoon, founder of digital art condition report tool, Articheck.
An A380 Airbus recently flew for three hours with one engine powered entirely by sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), made from used cooking oil and other fats.
Transforming global shipping is a critical part of reaching the Paris Agreement target of limiting global warming to 1.5°C and building zero emissions, resilient global supply chains that billions of people rely on.
Green corridors have been likened to special economic zones at sea — arenas where companies deploy new technologies and business models at full scale, interacting with each other and with regulations and incentives tailored to their efforts.
This year’s global climate conference was the first to emphasize the benefits of accelerating zero-emissions transportation, and Drive Electric partners showed up in full force.
Explore the economy-wide actions underway to halve emissions by 2030.
A new, more holistic approach and transformative initiative is needed to understand water and climate challenges.
To mark World Water Day on March 22, UNICEF issued a video answering the questions most vital to the water crisis in the Middle East and North Africa region.
UK water companies have joined forces, pledging to deliver a net zero water supply for customers by 2030
As water has allowed humans to thrive in the past, so it can continue to in the future
