The Bonn Climate Conference (SB56) opened today with the express purpose of beginning to take stock of where the world stands when it comes to implementing the Paris Climate Change Agreement.
The UN Climate Change High-Level Champions are convening their own programme of events at the conference – which runs from June 6-16 at the World Conference Center – to demonstrate to attending delegates how the non-state actor agenda has the potential to dramatically scale-up governments’ ambition on climate this year.
Some 12,500 businesses, cities, regions, financial, educational and healthcare institutions – the largest mobilization of non-state actors in support of enhanced government ambition and implementation ever seen — have joined the Race to Zero.
As presented at the first ever Middle East and North Africa Regional Climate Week in March 2022 for COP 27, the Climate Champions and Marrakesh Partnership are focused on: implementation and accelerated action, ensuring the integrity and impact of commitments and turning promises into projects, taking a holistic approach that elevates resilience to the top of our agenda and driving climate fiance to where they are needed most to ensure that climate action is inclusive, delivers a just transition and supports growth and development. We will do this through regionalizing and localizing all of these efforts and continuing to drive radical collaboration between and across sectors and between non-state actors and governments.
With the opening of the first technical dialogue of the Global Stocktake in Bonn this week – the Champions and the Marrakech Partnership will show how they intend to track progress towards commitments. The aim is that this will serve as a valuable contribution to 2023’s Global Stocktake.
The 56th session of the subsidiary bodies will also see for the first time the UN Climate Change High-Level Champions — alongside frontline voices and other non-state actors — report on how they are responding to the call by Parties in the Glasgow Climate Pact for “non-governmental organizations and private sources, to provide enhanced and additional support for activities addressing loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change.”
Patricia Espinosa, UNFCCC Executive Secretary, said: “The leadership and contributions of non-state actors has become more and more important every year, as the world must redouble its efforts on implementation. I am excited to see the High-Level Champions and Marrakesh Partnership already engaging deeply on a number of important issues, helping bring the voices and insights of non-state actors directly into the proceedings here in Bonn as part the first technical dialogue of the Global Stocktake, and helping to foster a much needed solutions oriented conversation about how to address the impacts we are already seeing from increasing climate disasters”.
Non-state actors ready to contribute to Global Stocktake
On Wednesday June 8, the High-Level Champions, alongside other collaborators, will demonstrate how they will bring worthwhile contributions across the different areas of Global Stocktake’s Technical Dialogue, so as to help inform the enhancement of climate action, including the update of government’s nationally determined contributions.
Already advancing sectoral decarbonization strategies across the global economy with the 2030 Breakthroughs — now complemented and dramatically accelerated with the COP26 Glasgow Breakthrough Agenda — non-state actors will identify forward-looking opportunities where governments can significantly ramp up ambition and implementation in the coming months and prevent runaway climate change.
Nigel Topping, UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for COP26, said: “As UN Climate Champions, Glasgow gave us a clear mandate to facilitate engagement by non-state actors in the Global Stocktake. In recent years, non-state actors have done a lot of work to align their efforts and accelerate progress. We are committed to bringing those insights and doing our utmost to help ensure that non-state actors contribute, through the Global Stocktake, in supporting governments and towards achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement.”
Glasgow Pact unlocks progress on climate losses and damages
On Tuesday June 7, the High-Level Champions — alongside frontline communities and other non-state actors — will report on how they are responding to the call by Parties in the Glasgow Climate Pact for non-state actors’ support for activities addressing loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change.
People, businesses, cities and regions are already taking action in the face of losses and damages in all their forms, but nowhere near the scale required to adequately address the needs of impacted communities. Now, with the mandate to explore how non-state actors’ can best support action on climate losses and damages, the UN Climate Change High-Level Champions will report on two workshops they convened in May and their work with a broad and diverse range of stakeholders to understand what needs to be done to scale-up new and existing efforts to address the needs of frontline communities across the world after impacts.
Dr Mahmoud Mohieldin, UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for COP27 in Egypt, said: “Climate impacts are already happening, and disproportionately affecting the most poor and vulnerable. We stand in solidarity with climate-vulnerable communities in the face of the impacts they are suffering as a result of the climate crisis they did not create. These communities need action now, and we are working to harness the innovation, dynamism, and resources of businesses, investors, cities, and regions to learn from existing actions and develop and scale up new solutions on climate losses and damages.”
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, said: “This event is a very welcome opportunity to consider what more non-state actors and non-party governments can do ahead of COP27 – to show leadership, build momentum and develop the evidence base for further action. I hope it will help to identify new areas for collaboration, partnership and action on loss and damage, as we prepare for a successful COP27, later this year.”
Notes
UN Climate Change High-Level Champions’ programme can be found here, and events listed below.
Tuesday, June 7, 13.15-14.45 | Room: Addis Abeba
The High-Level Champions — alongside frontline communities and other non-state actors — will report on how they are responding to the call by Parties in the Glasgow Climate Pact for “non-governmental organisations and private sources, to provide enhanced and additional support for activities addressing loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change.”
Wednesday, June 8, 13.15-14.45 |Room: Addis Abeba
The High-Level Champions, alongside other collaborators, will demonstrate how they will bring worthwhile contributions across the different areas of Global Stocktake’s Technical Dialogue, so as to help inform the enhancement of climate action, including the update of NDCs.
Media contact: Matthew Phillips, matthewphillips@climatechampions.team, +44783 469 9991
The G7 Summit in Hiroshima, 19-21 May, represents a pivotal moment for global cooperation and a commitment to building a resilient, equitable, and sustainable world for future generations.
Across the two weeks, non-State actors offered a wide range of actions, announcements, and events across thematic areas. This included the launch of the African Cities Water Adaptation Fund, an African-led insurance commitment to provide cover for up to USD 14 billion in climate losses, and the Sharm-El-Sheik Adaptation Agenda in partnership with the COP27 Presidency.
The new Africa Carbon Markets Initiative (ACMI), which was inaugurated today at CO27, aims to support the growth of carbon credit production and create jobs in Africa.
This Yearbook of Global Climate Action, the sixth of the series, reviews the state and scope of global climate action in 2022.
