What are the action points from COP 23?

The common message from all sides at this conference has been that action to get on track towards the objectives of the Paris Climate Change Agreement and to ultimately achieve the 2030 Agenda Sustainable Development Goals is urgent, time is really running out and everyone simply must do much better together to drive climate action further and faster ahead now.

Above all, this means rapidly raising the current global ambition to act on climate change that is captured in the full set of national climate action plans (NDCs) which sit at the heart of the Agreement.

The following list includes announcements made during Cop23 to drive us further, faster and together to this destination.

Financing Climate Action

Major announcements included funds to support the poorest and most vulnerable, whose plight has been brought into sharp perspective by this year’s extreme weather

• InsuResilience Initiative additional USD 125 mln from Germany to support provision of insurance to 400 more million poor and vulnerable people by 2020. A G20 and V20 (vulnerable nations) partnership
• Adaptation Fund exceeds 2017 Target – Germany’s contribution of 50 million euros and Italy’s contribution of 7 million euros means the Fund has now surpassed its 2017 target by over USD 13 million and stands at a total equivalent of USD 93.3 million dollars
• Norway & Unilever USD 400 mln fund for public and private investment in more resilient socioeconomic development.  Investing in business models that combine investments in high productivity agriculture, smallholder inclusion and forest protection
• Germany and Britain to provide combined USD 153 mln to expand programs to fight climate change and deforestation in Amazon rainforest
• European Investment Bank will provide USD 75 million for a new USD 405 million investment programmeby the Water Authority of Fiji. The scheme will strengthen resilience of water distribution and wastewater treatment following Cyclone Winston, the world’s second strongest storm ever recorded, which hit Fiji in February 2016
• Green Climate Fund and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development signed up to free USD 37.6 million of GCF grant financing in the USD 243.1 million Saïss Water Conservation Project to make Moroccan agriculture more resilient
• World Resources Institute announced a landmark USD2.1 billion of private investment earmarked to restore degraded lands in Latin America and the Caribbean through Initiative 20×20
• UNDP, Germany, Spain and EU launch EUR 42 million programme NDC Support Programme at UN Climate Summit to help countries deliver on the Paris Agreement
• NDC Partnership to establish a new regional hub to support implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in the Pacific
• 13 countries and IEA – EUR 30 mln to “IEA Clean Energy Transitions Programme” to support clean energy transitions around the world
• Ecuador to reduce 15 million tonnes of CO2 emissions in the forest sector
• Gabon’s National Park Service to halt illegal logging to stop emission of 20 million tonnes of CO2

Investing in Climate Action

• HSBC announces 100 billion for green investments just before COP23
• R20 and Blue Orchard Finance’s African Sub-national Climate Fund to provide ready-to-invest projects and funds to implement at least 100 infrastructure projects by 2020

Coordinating Climate Action

With so many climate action pledges and initiatives from across government, business and civil society, there is a growing need to coordinate effort to ensure that every cent invested and every minute of work contributed results in a much greater impact than each acting separately.

• SIDS Health Initiative by WHO, UN Climate Change secretariat and Fijian COP 23 Presidency to ensure small island developing states have health systems resilient to climate change by 2030
• America’s Pledge brings together private and public sector leaders to ensure the US remains a global leader in reducing emissions and delivers the country’s climate goals under the Paris Agreement
• Powering Past Coal Alliance brings together 25 countries, states and regions to accelerate the rapid phase-out of coal and support affected workers and communities to make the transition
• C40 mayors of 25 pioneering cities, representing 150 million citizens, pledged to develop and begin implementing more ambitious climate action plans before the end of 2020 to deliver emissions neutral and climate resilient cities by 2050
• Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction – signed agreement to dramatically speed up and scale upcollaborative action
• below50 -World Business Council on Sustainable Development initiative to grow the global market for the most sustainable fuels.
• EcoMobility Alliance – Ambitious cities committed to sustainable transport.
• Transforming Urban Mobility Initiative – Accelerating implementation of sustainable urban transportdevelopment and mitigation of climate change.
• The Ocean Pathway Partnership aims, by 2020, to strengthen action and funding that links climate change action; healthy oceans and livelihoods including through the UN Climate Change process and via national climate action plans
• United Nations Development Programme launched the Global Platform for the New York Declaration on Forests to accelerate achievement of its goals of forest protection and restoration.

Corporate Emission Cuts

• Mars Inc. to reduce carbon footprint 27% by 2025 and 67% by 2050
• Microsoft to cut carbon emissions by 75 percent by 2030
• EV100 – More big companies join transition to electro-mobility
• Walmart commits to commodities that do not increase deforestation

Government Ratifications

• Syria ratified the Paris Agreement – 170 have now ratified
• Six countries have ratified the Doha Amendment (Belgium, Finland, Germany, Slovakia, Spain, and Sweden) – 90 countries in total have ratified
• Eight countries have ratified the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol (Comoros, Finland, Germany, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Luxembourg, Maldives, Slovakia and the UK) – 19 countries in total have ratified

It will me important to monitor these action points until COP 24 in Katowice, Poland.