Leading non party stakeholders commit to deliver immediate high ambition climate targets

Here in Glasgow at COP26, we, the undersigned Non-Party Stakeholders (NPS) who work with businesses, cities, states, regions, investors and civil society around the world on climate, join together to declare/state:

1. The dire scientific warnings and real-life evidence of growing and more severe climate impacts, and the loss of lives and the damage they are causing, demand an urgent and resolute response. The current climate emergency requires us to accelerate and intensify action, this decade, to keep the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C temperature goal, resilience and adaptation objective and finance objective within reach.

2. This stark reality demands concerted efforts by all actors in society to halve global emissions, boost the climate resilience of 4 billion vulnerable people, and making trillions of finance flows consistent with these climate goals by 2030, to get the world on track for a healthy, resilient, zero carbon world as soon as possible, and by 2050 at the latest.

3. To date, we have built significant momentum in non-party stakeholder commitments and action working with the High-Level Champions for Climate Action (HLCs) and the Marrakech Partnership, as established by the Parties at COP21 and COP22 respectively. We view these efforts as a critical lever for accelerating the development and implementation of enhanced Nationally Determined Contributions, Long Term Strategies, National Adaptation Plans and financial commitments at the national and international level, accelerating the ‘ambition loop’ in which non-party stakeholder leadership and ambitious policy positively reinforce each other to further ratchet up ambitious action on all fronts and to close the remaining gaps.

4. In this regard, we welcome and commit to fully support the implementation of the HLCs’ plan for improving work under the Marrakech Partnership, as requested by Parties at COP25 when the mandate was extended for another 5 years, including through wider and deeper engagement through the Race to Zero, Race to Resilience, the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, the Marrakech Partnership Sector Pathways and 2030 Breakthroughs. Through these global campaigns, we will continue to build momentum, drive alignment and convergence amongst a wide and diverse group of non-party stakeholders to foster the radical collaboration needed between non-party stakeholders and parties to achieve our shared, science-based goals.

5. To deliver on this vision in this ‘Decisive Decade’ for climate action, we stand ready to accelerate our efforts through an improved Marrakech Partnership, maximizing the impact of the work of all non-party stakeholders with a focus on the following:

(a) Act now in line with the science, by driving further momentum in the number of credible, transparent, science-aligned, high ambition climate targets and plans from business, investors, cities, states and regions in line with the objectives of the Paris Agreement, working through the Race to Zero, Race to Resilience and Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero. From here forward, our focus will be on turning those commitments into urgent action, strengthening near term plans, ensuring consistency of action across all levers of influence, and on strengthening the internal and external mechanisms to track and report on progress. We will work with nature to deliver these changes to deliver mitigation and adaptation benefits, and to enhance the world’s ecosystems and biodiversity.

(b) Drive exponential systems change by accelerating the complex task of working within and across value chains and sectors to transform the global economy, to adapt and build resilience, and limit warming to 1.5°C. We will be guided by the near-term goals in the 2030 Breakthroughs derived from the Marrakech Partnership 1.5-Degree Climate Action
Pathways published earlier this year, and the insights from the Resilience Transformations, continue to update them in line with the latest science and locally-led best practice, and drive new levels of radical collaboration across non-party stakeholders and with Parties, within and across sectors.

(c) Work with national governments. We welcome the leadership of those countries who have significantly increased their ambition for COP 26, through strengthened NDCs, improved Long Term Strategies, enhanced National Adaptation Plans, increased climate finance commitments, and the Glasgow Breakthroughs. However, noting the significant remaining gap to reach the goals of the Paris Agreement, we will continue to strengthen the unique platform of the Marrakech Partnership to support countries to further increase ambition and action on mitigation and adaptation. This will include: participating actively in multi-stakeholder dialogues and partnerships; supporting vibrant and constructive national climate policy processes, and promoting climate solutions that can inspire and contribute to new climate regulations. We will work with a spirit of collaboration to contribute to an emerging inclusive multilateralism to support an urgent “all of society” response to the climate crisis.

(d) Deepen local engagement to ensure an inclusive, equitable, global, multi-stakeholder approach, ensuring that ideas, inputs, expertise and perspectives are brought in from all corners of the globe and every sector of society, with special recognition and attention paid to the needs and ideas of those most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

We will focus on expanding the geographic reach of our campaigns, keeping people and locally led principles and solutions at the heart of our efforts. We look forward to supporting the COP27 presidency next year, hosted by Africa as an immediate opportunity to highlight and demonstrate opportunities for leadership and action in that region, and we are committed to ensuring our campaigns and work are tailored to help all countries accelerate localized solutions as we pursue a rapid global transition to a net-zero and climate-resilient world.

(e) Build and adhere to the highest standards of transparency and accountability for Non-Party Stakeholder commitments, which lie at the heart of the credibility and impact of our work. Transparent, actionable and informative tracking of progress will be key to ensuring the integrity of commitments and that they translate into robust climate action. We will work to ensure that progress across the landscape is clearly communicated to inform and inspire further action and leadership by all where it is needed most to close the remaining gaps to limit warming to 1.5°C and build resilience to the impacts of climate change. In particular, we are committed to provide high quality, timely and actionable inputs into the Global Stocktake, to ensure it is as effective as possible in increasing ambition.

Although much progress has been made since Paris from Non-Party Stakeholders and the enhanced national plans and policies presented in Glasgow, there is still a significant gap to bridge over to the level of ambition required to achieve the objectives of the Paris Agreement, and time is running out. This public declaration is our commitment to do everything we can to bridge this gap, and keep a 1.5°C temperature limit within reach.