The Scottish government and the government of California signed a joint agreement to act on climate change.
The Mayors of Paris, France, and London, UK, have announced a car scoring system that aims to reduce air pollution in these two cities.
C40 and the consultancy firm Arup have estimated that C40 cities need to spend US$375 billion by 2020 on low carbon infrastructure in order to achieve the objectives Paris Agreement.
4 April 2017: Recent developments related to mitigation action have featured sub-national actors, including regions and cities. These will contribute to achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13 (climate action) and SDG 17 (partnerships for the Goals).
On 3 April, the government of Scotland and the government of California signed a joint agreement to act on climate change. The cooperation between the two sub-national governments aims to help them achieve the ambitions set out in the Under2 MOU.
The Under2 MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) is an agreement from signatories to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 80 to 95% below 1990 levels, or limit to two annual metric tons of CO2-equivalent per capita, by 2050. The Under2 MOU is currently signed or endorsed by 167 jurisdictions spanning 33 countries and six continents. It represents 1.09 billion people and US$25.9 trillion in GDP, equivalent to over a third of the global economy. [Government of Scotland Press Release] [MOU Between Scotland and California] [Under 2 MOU]
Action to slash GHG emissions has also been reported at the cities level. The Mayors of Paris, France, and London, UK announced a car scoring system that aims to reduce air pollution in the two cities. According to C40, Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris and Chair of C40 Cities, and Mayor of London Sadiq Khan announced ongoing work to create schemes to score new cars “based on their real-world emissions and their impact on air quality.” The schemes aim to enable consumers to make better-informed choices about the environmental impact of their cars and prevent car manufacturers from exploiting loopholes in existing labelling schemes. The two cities have committed to make the data available online by the end of 2017. [C40 Press Release]
C40 and the consultancy firm Arup released a report called ‘Deadline 2020’ that outlines the pace, scale and prioritization of action needed by C40 member cities over the next five years and beyond to achieve the objectives of the Paris Agreement. The report estimates that C40 cities need to spend US$375 billion by 2020 on low-carbon infrastructure in order to be on the right trajectory.
In support of this action by cities, C40 cities, C40 and CDP have partnered to produce an analysis of sustainable infrastructure projects currently in development across the C40 network. The ‘Low Carbon Investment Landscape in C40 Cities’ provides an analysis of the sustainable infrastructure projects, and finds that C40 cities are currently developing “a huge number of sustainable infrastructure projects,” with a total reported value of at least US$15.5 billion. The report is accompanied by a “beta pipeline” that highlights planned projects in C40 cities. [Deadline 2020] [Beta Pipeline] [UNFCCC Press Release] [Low Carbon Investment Landscape in C40 Cities]