Never in the history of humankind have we been faced with such a stark choice: to act now or risk losing it all forever.
Just as there is no more room for new fossil fuel developments, there is no room for complacency. Every single person, business, institution and government has a role to play in preserving our beautiful planet for future generations.
Our part is clear. The UN Climate Change High Level Champions for Action must continue to mobilize bold climate action that jumpstarts drastic emissions reductions that keep us in line with 1.5C and builds resilience for billions of people.
With our campaigns, Race to Resilience and Race to Zero, we work with thousands of non-state actors – from cities, to businesses and banks – to accelerate their action. We know that private sector innovation (with public support) accelerates the kind of rapid transformations we need, like nothing else.
It is therefore incumbent upon these actors to move forward with courage and decisiveness – acting in the interests of the many, and not the few. With every second of delayed action, the greater the loss: to economies, resources, profits, lives, health and jobs.
This Earth Day 2022, we look forward to the day when our campaigns cease the need to exist. For thousands upon thousands of non-state actors, which we helped mobilize, paved the way and propelled governments into securing a liveable world.
We won’t give up until we get to this point – and there’s much hope that a healthier, safer, fairer, zero carbon and resilient world is within reach.
Race to Resilience
The Race to Resilience continues to catalyze a step-change in global ambition for climate resilience, putting people and nature first.
Through a partnership of ever-growing initiatives, the campaign focuses on helping the most vulnerable, frontline communities to build resilience and adapt to the physical impacts of climate change, such as extreme heat, drought, flooding and sea-level rise, in three area types: urban, rural and coastal.
Currently the campaign has 28 Partners, representing over 2,000 organizations that are delivering action in 127 different countries.
To date partners have pledged, among other things, to make 2.3 billion people more resilient by 2030; invest nearly $4bn into resilience projects; and increase the resilience of over 100 natural systems.
Race to Zero
The Race to Zero, meanwhile, now has over 10,000 members across more than 115 countries. This includes over 7,000 businesses representing ~15% of GDP and over 530 financial institutions with over $130 trillion Assets under management. These members are taking ambitious action to – at the very least – halve emissions by 2030 and contribute beyond their own value chain to global decarbonization targets.
The Race to Zero is also working to improve its integrity in the form of its criteria consultation process. The latest – third and largest consultation yet – brings together over 150 experts from across the world, looking to drive forward the community of best practice.
In this context, over half our Partners have now been reviewed by our Expert Peer Review Group, to assess how they are progressing against the management of their members to the campaign criteria, and to identify opportunities for them to step up in leadership where relevant.
Through a new accountability mechanism, we’re also looking to develop a process to help identify how to best target support for members who are struggling, and ultimately to remove members who persistently fail to comply with the campaign criteria.
Our team
We now have close to 100 members of staff from around the world working hard to mobilize climate action across multiple sectors, from oceans and agriculture to energy and finance.
As we gear up to COP27, which Egypt is hosting, our focus this year is on rallying non-state actors to address losses and damages, mobilizing finance to Emerging Markets and Developing Economies and amplifying action across Africa.
Notable progress includes:
As part of the Youth Fellowship programme, the new fellows will help mobilise climate action amongst non-state actors to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement, in close collaboration with the UNFCCC, the Marrakech Partnership and the COP Presidencies.
From bustling urban landscapes of the U.S., to vibrant communities in Mexico, Brazil, Germany, and beyond, discover the ambitious initiatives undertaken by cities in the Race to Zero campaign under Cities Race to Zero.
With five months until COP28, UN Climate Change High-Level Champion from the COP28 Presidency, H.E Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak has told stakeholders at an event in Dubai on Monday they must promote collective climate action.
The UN Climate Change High-Level Champions and the Dubai Chambers invite you to an event aimed at mobilising climate action in the UAE ahead of COP28.
