World Leaders Issue Proclamation Underlining ‘Irreversible’ Momentum
Marrakech, 18 November 2016—Countries accelerated global climate action across a broad range of areas at the 2016 UN climate change conference as they fast-tracked the political and practical aims of the historic Paris Climate Change Agreement.
Multi-billion and multi-million dollar packages of support for clean technologies; building capacity to report on climate action plans, and initiatives for boosting water and food security in developing countries were also among the many new announcements and initiatives launched.
Meanwhile governments set a rapid deadline of 2018 to complete the rule book for operationalizing the Paris Agreement to ensure confidence, cooperation and its success over the years and decades to come.
Businesses, investors, cities and local governments also issued new climate change commitments, adding to the thousands announced in the run up to the Paris climate conference last year.
For example, a club of subnational governments, the Under2 Coalition, who have committed to reduce their emissions by at least 80 percent by 2050, announced their membership has grown to 165.
- The combined GDP of these 165 members is close to $26 trillion – a third of the global economy – and cover a population of around one billion people living in North America, Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia.
The Climate Vulnerable Forum a group of more than 40 vulnerable nations, released a declaration that strengthens the call to limit global temperature rise to as close to 1.5 degrees Celsius as possible.
- Their Marrakech Vision commits these countries to various ambitious aims, including achieving 100% renewable energy between 2030 and 2050.
Several countries – Canada, Germany, Mexico and the United States – announced ambitious climate strategies out to 2050, reflecting the long-term goal of the Paris Agreement to achieve climate neutrality and a low-emission world in the second half of the century.
Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said, “The landmark Paris Agreement set the course and the destination for global climate action. Here in Marrakech, governments underlined that this shift is now urgent, irreversible and unstoppable”.
This new era of implementation and action for climate and for sustainable development was captured in the Marrakech Action Proclamation.
At the close Fiji was announced as the incoming President of the 2017 UN climate conference (COP23) which will be hosted by the UNFCCC in Bonn