With the close of the first week of the Bonn Climate Conference, the UN Climate Change High-Level Champions wrapped up their programme of events, which aimed to demonstrate to attending delegates how the non-State action agenda can dramatically scale-up governments’ ambition on climate ahead of COP27.
The programme formally concluded with the event “Taking Stock of Progress”, where the Climate Champions – Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin and Nigel Topping – responded to their mandate in the Glasgow Climate Pact to facilitate non-State engagement in the Global Stocktake.
Running in parallel with the Stocktake’s Technical Assessment process – also underway in Bonn – this was the first ‘Champions-convenved’ dialogue with non-State actors, including business, finance, regional governments and civil society, sitting down with government representatives to understand the breadth of work being done in the real economy to drive implementation.
Climate Champion for COP26, Nigel Topping said: “Over the coming weeks and months, we welcome ideas on how we can best exercise our mandate to help ensure that non-State actors meaningfully contribute to the Global Stocktake and so support governments in implementing the Paris Agreement. Specifically, in collaboration with the Marrakech Partnership and our broader community, we are working to complement the Stocktake process by offering clear solutions for the way forward that are of direct relevance to challenges that governments are facing.”
The Champions were joined by leading members of the data and analytical community, including Dr. Todd Edwards, Executive Director of Camda and Marine Pouget, Policy Advisor for Global Climate Governance for CAN France, who asked government representatives what metrics and information they would like to see from non-State actors to help inform the Stocktake and NDC enhancement.
Climate Champion for COP27, Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin said: “The global stocktake must serve as the evidence base for action. We are hearing repeated requests from non-State actors to ensure that the Global Stocktake must be forward-looking and solutions-oriented, generating clear signals for domestic policymakers to help close the 2030 ambition gap and driven by reliable data essential for effective climate action.”
Champions begin dialogue on non-State action to address losses and damages
Earlier in the week, the Champions hosted an event “Actions After Impacts” with frontline voices to explore how non-State actors can scale-up action to address climate losses and damages.
The event opened with reflections on workshops the Champions convened in May on this topic, before hearing from Dr Saleemul Huq, First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon, and youth climate activist Vanessa Nakate on what more needs to be done to adequately meet the growing needs of vulnerable and impacted communities.
“As the climate crisis escalates people are losing their lives, people are losing their livelihoods, people are losing their cultures – so there is really a need to put the people on the agenda.” said Vanessa Nakate.
Climate Champion for COP27, Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin added: “This is not just an issue for States. This is about anyone who is a member of a community or society.”
Meanwhile, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, joining by video, announced both a global conference on climate losses and damages that Scotland will be hosting later in the year in addition to new loss and damage initiatives including to address post-disaster relief in Malawi and research to further global understanding of addressing loss and damage.
The UN Climate Change High-Level Champions will continue to convene a series of meetings in the run up to COP27 to understand what actions non-State actors can take to scale-up new and existing efforts to address the needs of frontline communities already facing climate losses and damages.
Media contact: Matthew Phillips, matthewphillips@climatechampions.team
About
The UN High Level Champions for Climate Action from the UK and Egypt – Dr Mahmoud Mohieldin and Nigel Topping – build on the legacy of their predecessors to engage with non-state actors and activate the ‘ambition loop’ with national governments. Their work is fundamentally designed to encourage a collaborative shift across all of society towards a decarbonised economy so that we can all thrive in a healthy, resilient, zero carbon world.
Mahmoud and Nigel have convened a team to help them deliver on this work through flagship campaigns (the Race to Zero, Race to Resilience, and GFANZ), targeted stakeholder engagement and leadership in systems transformation.
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