The President of Chile, Sebastián Piñera, unveils this Monday, at the UN Climate Action Summit 2019, the achievements and results of the Mitigation coalition, where Chile has led the work of this coalition this year at the request of the United Nations Secretary General, António Guterres, and with the support of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and UNDP.
In this context, Piñera announces that 59 nations have expressed their intention to sign up to a strengthened climate action plan (or NDC, Nationally Determined Contributions) and recognized those 11 nations that have already begun a more ambitious domestic process and have reflected this in their national plans for 2020, as set out in the Paris Agreement.
He also states that more than 66 Parties to the UNFCCC, 10 regions, 102 cities, 93 companies and 12 investors are committed to achieving zero net CO2 emissions by 2050. This clearly demonstrates that both state and private actors recognize the urgent need to take ambitious action to address the climate change emergency.
The President notes that “today we are announcing a historic and groundbreaking Climate Ambition Partnership. Many leaders have shown that boosting the ambition of Nationally Determined Contributions is both necessary and possible, but other nations must join. The year 2020 is just around the corner and we must realize that decisions must be made now. We are the first generation to suffer the effects of climate change and the last generation that can do something about it.”.
While President Piñera explains that Chile will continue to lead mitigation efforts in the lead up to the COP25 Chile climate change conference, those efforts will now continue under the new Climate Ambition Partnership. This alliance, launched by Chile during the UN Climate Action Summit 2019, will also include strong actions on adaptation and active participation of the private sector. All efforts will aim to accelerate the transformation needed to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement and ultimately stabilize the global temperature increase at 1.5°C.
Under the Mitigation Footprint of the Climate Ambition Partnership, President Piñera explained that Chile will focus on presenting improved Nationally Determined Contributions, reaching new commitments to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050; and implementing measures to strengthen the protection of forests and oceans.
Under the Climate Ambition Alliance's Mitigation Footprint, Chile will lead strong actions to improve water management, infrastructure resilience and city sustainability.
“The consequences of not achieving net zero CO2 emissions by 2050 would be enormous,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres. “It would have a ripple effect on every major development challenge facing humanity, increase the loss of life due to extreme weather emergencies, and drastically set back the global economy. It would be unacceptable to leave a legacy of neglect to our children. Instead, nations must boost the ambition of their national climate action plans for 2020 and show leadership in achieving this crucial goal for our world.”.
As host and chair of the next United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP25) next December, Chile will continue to encourage nations, regions, cities, companies and investors to act and join this multi-stakeholder Climate Ambition Partnership to achieve concrete results in mitigation and adaptation strategies.
The 2019 Climate Summit
The 2019 UN Climate Summit represents a significant opportunity for a cleaner, healthier and more prosperous future. Governments and business leaders have come together to strengthen their resolve to achieve carbon neutrality and safely prevent the world from increasing its temperature by more than 1.5°C. This momentum has been building since the Paris Agreement was adopted in 2015. This instrument provided the clear and urgent signal that we need to undergo a significant change in the way our economies operate.
Despite this, the world continues to lag behind. Climate change is the greatest threat to sustainable development and disproportionately burdens the poorest and most vulnerable. The consequences, such as rising sea levels, increased drought and heat waves, are already threatening life and survival around the world, with disastrous consequences for poverty eradication, human health, migration and inequality.
To date, the commitments made by countries under the Paris Agreement are not ambitious enough to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5°C. The latest scientific information indicates that global net CO2 emissions must fall to 45% from 2010 levels to reach carbon neutrality by 2050. The purpose of the Summit is to boost ambition in order to achieve this goal.
Annex I: Greater ambition in national climate plans
Under the Paris Agreement, parties have been asked to submit or update Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) for 2020. In that context, 58 countries are responding to an urgent need to reduce emissions over the next decade by signaling their intention to work to improve the ambition of their NDCs by 2020. In addition, 9 countries started an internal process in their national policies and plans to boost ambition for 2020.
Decisions to trigger the transformation to achieve the objectives of the Paris Agreement must be made now; for this reason, other countries are encouraged to express their intention to join this list.
