20 March 2017: UN General Assembly (UNGA) President Peter Thomson released the concept note and updated programme for the High-level Action Event on Climate Change and the Sustainable Development Agenda, which he is convening in collaboration with Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The Action Event takes place on 23 March 2017, in New York, US. The concept note highlights two objectives for the Action Event. First, it will aim to invigorate political momentum on climate change, highlighting its “deep linkage to the Sustainable Development Agenda.” Discussions will emphasize concrete solutions on climate and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that are expected to yield cross-cutting dividends, especially regarding land-use, energy and the ocean. The second objective is to increase understanding regarding the urgent need to ramp up ambition and implementation, especially given upcoming 2020 targets and milestones for both climate and SDGs.
The year 2020 is “particularly critical” for both climate change and the SDGs.
The concept note elaborates that 2020 is “a particularly critical year” for both climate change and the SDGs. By 2020, scientific studies argue, sufficient actions must be taken so to not cross dangerous thresholds with regard to climate change. In addition, several of the SDG targets are to be achieved by 2020, including some related to land use and the ocean.
The programme includes segments to: conduct stocktaking on the ratification of the Paris Agreement on climate change, as well as gaps and opportunities; and hold interactive discussions on scaling up implementation of the Paris Agreement and the SDGs, and achieving the 2020 targets of the SDGs as well as governments’ nationally determined contributions (NDCs).
The plenary segment aims to address three guiding questions: 1) What ambitious policies and measures are being undertaken by Member States and other stakeholders to implement the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement, in order to meet the objective of limiting the increase in global average temperature to below 2° C? 2) What actions are be taken or can be scaled up to enhance enabling frameworks, incentives, and means of implementation at international, national and local levels that yield cross-cutting dividends for climate action and SDGs, especially given the need to deliver results by 2020? And 3) What is needed to encourage more successful multi-stakeholder approaches by governments, sub-national actors, the private sector, civil society and other relevant stakeholders, particularly in relation to land use, energy and the ocean, and the human dimensions of climate change and sustainable development?
Ahead of the Action Event, Espinosa wrote in an op-ed that while the world better understands the threats, the link between a stable climate and secure, peaceful human development is not yet understood clearly enough. She identifies three objectives for the UNFCCC Secretariat in 2017-2018: to complete the Paris Agreement’s “rule book”; to help governments implement and strengthen their nationally determined contributions (NDCs); and to continue supporting rapid scaling up of climate finance. She highlights the 2018 Facilitative Dialogue, a stocktaking exercise and opportunity to increase NDC ambition ahead of 2020.
Opening the Pacific regional preparatory meeting for the UN Ocean Conference, the incoming President of the 23rd session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 23) to the UNFCCC, Voreqe Bainimarama, Prime Minister of Fiji, stressed the need to “preserve the multilateral consensus” in the Paris Agreement, noting, “we cannot afford to have any government renege on the commitments that were made.” He highlighted recent research showing coral reef damage at the current rate of global warming, one degree Celsius above the pre-industrial level, and impacts on agriculture leading to mass human migrations in Africa and Asia. He emphasized that this is “a crisis that we are living today – now.” He called to devise more radical action to accelerate the reduction of carbon emissions, and to pursue climate adaptation through financial models and technical solutions, to build resilience to the effects of climate change. [Concept Note and Programme] [IISD RS Meeting Coverage] [Espinosa Op-Ed] [COP 23 President Speech]