UN
Global Climate Action
26
April
2023 | |
High-Level Champions'
Newsletter | |
23
venture capital firms join Race to
Zero | |
Race
to Zero is delighted to approve Venture Climate
Alliance (VCA) as a formal partner. The VCA has
been created by leading global venture capital
firms to define, facilitate, and realize net
zero-aligned pathways for early-stage
investments with a goal to build a robust
movement within the venture industry to combat
climate change.
The
VCA’s 23 founding members are Prelude
Ventures, Capricorn Investment
Group, DCVC, Energy
Impact Partners, Galvanize Climate
Solutions, S2G
Ventures, Union
Square Ventures, Tiger
Global, World
Fund
and 2150;
along with Obvious
Ventures, Congruent Ventures, Valo
Ventures, Clean
Energy Ventures, Fifth
Wall, Overture
Ventures, Blackhorn Ventures, Spring
Lane Capital, Azolla
Ventures, Systemiq
Capital, The
Westly Group, Innovation Endeavors,
and ReGen
Ventures.
It is supported by Great
Circle Capital Advisors,
a climate finance advisory firm.
The
VCA has been approved by the Race to
Zero
under the leadership of the UN Climate Change
High-Level Champions, and
constitutes a new sector-specific alliance under
the Glasgow
Financial Alliance for Net Zero
(GFANZ). The VCA will work alongside other
sector-specific alliances within GFANZ to
develop methodologies and tools appropriate for
early-stage investments, and to share expertise
on climate solutions across the broader
financial sector.
UN
Climate Change High-Level Champions for COP27
and COP28 Presidencies, Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin
and Razan Al Mubarak said:
”Venture
capital funding is crucial to advancing the
climate agenda. It plays a key role in the
development of climate mitigation technology
which is urgently needed to keep us within a 1.5
°C limit. Race to Zero’s 25 Partners and around
11,000 members are working hard to implement the
campaign’s robust, science-aligned
criteria.
Two-thirds
of the largest companies in Race to Zero have
shifted from pledges to science- based
transition plans, driving down emissions in
their operations by 6.5% on average. A total of
70% have set an absolute reduction target by
2030. We look forward to supporting and
collaborating with the Venture Climate Alliance
as together we build on this significant
momentum in this year of the Global
Stocktake.”
Membership
in the VCA is open to any venture capital firm,
or a division of a larger firm that is engaged
primarily in venture investing, that agrees to
fulfill VCA’s commitments and to actively
contribute to the organization as appropriate.
For more information, or to become a member,
please visit ventureclimatealliance.org.
| |
High-Level
Champions lock in 2023 Marrakech Partnership
Work
Programme | |
The
2023 work programme sets out short-term goals
for the delivery of the five-year plan of the
Marrakech Partnership, released at COP26, to
engage NPS with the ambitious, just, equitable
and inclusive transitions needed for a 1.5°C
resilient world in 2050.
The
work programme reflects the shared vision of the
High-Level Champions, emerging priorities of the
COP 28 Presidency, plus a recent stakeholder
consultation. It also places
specific emphasis on addressing the
adaptation gap and strengthening resilience,
increasing just finance for climate action,
mobilizing mitigation ambition and action, and
building credibility through enhanced
accountability. The programme encourages active
participation from NPS in the first Global
Stocktake.
Building
on the Marrakech Partnership five-year plan, the
2023 programme is structured to deliver the
following actions:
- Mobilizing
NPS towards credible, transparent, science-based
goals to maximize ambition and action, through
the Race to Zero and Race to Resilience
campaigns.
- Driving
systems transformation through cross-sector,
cross-region collaboration - to mobilize action
on finance, technology and capacity
building.
- Engaging
NPS in the UNFCCC processes, particularly the
GST - to create the conditions to ratchet-up
global ambition.
- Enhancing
accountability, by improving transparency tools
and processes for tracking NPS climate
commitments, including the Global
Climate Action portal
(GCAP).
Overall,
the 2023 work programme is designed to promote
an all-of-society and systems transformation
approach across every sector, guided by radical
collaboration, and strengthened support, which
are needed to deliver national plans through a
positively reinforcing “ambition
loop”. | |
Respecting, promoting and enacting the
rights of Indigenous
Peoples | |
Razan
Al Mubarak, UN Climate Change High-Level
Champion for the COP28 Presidency and President
of the International Union for Conservation of
Nature (IUCN), urged for greater inclusion of
indigenous peoples as “full partners in
decision-making processes that affect their
lands, health, resources and way of life” at the
22nd Session of the United Nations Permanent
Forum on Indigenous Issues
(UNPFII).
During
her keynote address, Ms. Al Mubarak said:
“The Paris Agreement states that climate change
is a common concern for all humankind and when
taking action to address climate change, the
rights of indigenous peoples should be
respected, promoted and enacted.”
Pointing
to reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change, the Paris Agreement and the
Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework,
Ms. Al Mubarak recognized the myriad of
contributions by indigenous peoples to tackling
the climate crisis from advocacy to
environmental stewardship.
| |
A
seat at the table: G7 acknowledges subnational
Climate Action
| |
The G7
Ministers’ Meeting on Climate, Energy and
Environment
in Sapporo, Japan, has promised to speed up the
phaseout of unabated fossil fuels and the shift
towards renewable energy. According to the
world’s seven largest advanced economies, this
is necessary to achieve net-zero emissions in
energy systems by 2050 at the latest. The G7
countries underscored that the net zero by 2050
goal is in line with the trajectories required
to limit global average temperature rise to
1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Addressing
ministers at the meeting, UN Climate Change
Chief Simon Stiell called on the entire
international community to urgently accelerate
its exit from all fossil fuels to avoid the
worst impacts of climate change.
It
also concluded with the announcement of the
first-ever G7 Round-table on Subnational Climate
Actions in collaboration with Urban7
(U7)
- the voice of local governments at the G7
process.
In
their final Communiqué, the G7 Ministers for
Climate, Energy and Environment addressed, “the
vital role of subnational actors in realizing
the transformation toward net zero,
climate-resilient, circular, and nature positive
economies, furthering socioeconomic
opportunities based on local capacity, needs and
individual environmental
conditions.”
The
Ministers committed to “catalyze support for
actions by subnational actors, encourage sharing
best practices and promote city-to-city
cooperation”.
Concretely,
the Ministers established the G7 Round-table on
Subnational Climate Actions, as a forum “for G7
members to share national policies and programs
promoting subnational climate actions both
domestic and across borders”. The Ministers
explicitly recognized the Urban7 (U7), noting
that they “look forward to facilitating a
dialogue with the U7 at the
Round-table.”
The
outcomes of the Round-table will be presented to
the G20 and at COP 28 in the UAE later in the
year. | |
Scaling
up green hydrogen projects in Africa
| |
Africa
could meet nearly a quarter of its energy needs
from indigenous and from clean renewable energy
by 2030 and increase that to as much as two
thirds by 2050, according to the International
Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).
But while the continent is rich in potential
energy resources, it requires further support
and strengthened capacities to leverage these
opportunities.
One
of those sources is green hydrogen. Currently,
the majority
of green hydrogen projects that have reached
final investment decision are located in
developed countries.
A
recent forum
organised
by the Mauritanian Government and the Africa
Green Hydrogen Alliance (AGHA) with the support
of the Green Hydrogen Organisation and UN
Climate Change High-Level Champions, addressed
the issue of financing large-scale renewable
energy and green hydrogen projects in developing
countries and emerging
economies.
Over
two
hundred representatives from African
governments, renewable energy and green hydrogen
project developers and development finance
institutions (DFIs) among others came together
for the two-day event.
In
addition, the forum concluded with the
publication of the Nouakchott Message;
a set of recommendations calling on DFIs and
their shareholders to enable the African green
hydrogen economy as soon as possible.
| |
To
coincide with a recent meeting of EU Environment
Ministers in Stockholm, the city held its
first Climate
Week,
providing four days of live climate
broadcasting.
The
Climate Champions Team (CCT) joined leading
scientists at the opening plenary to
highlight how leading companies are taking
action in line with science to cut both their
own emissions, and those they influence through
their business activity.
In
addition, the CCT talked to industry leaders on
the exponential growth of electric vehicles,
mobility as a service, and micro mobility in
cities, driven by smart technologies. Electric
Vehicle charging infrastructure is expected
to hit a tipping point around 2025 with price
parity between fossil fuel and electric
cars.
At
the closing ceremony, the CCT joined Johan Falk,
CEO and Co-founder, Exponential Roadmap
Initiative to discuss how world leaders in
science, policy, and business can and must work
together to accelerate the implementation of
existing solutions for the greatest challenge of
our time: halving global emissions by
2030.
You
can watch the event here.
| |
- The Energy Transitions Committee estimates
that at least US$130bn a year is needed to
protect the most at-risk areas of tropical
forest by the end of the decade, alongside
reductions in beef and dairy consumption and
government bans on deforestation. Its ‘Financing
the Transition: The Cost of Avoiding
Deforestation’ report suggests money needed
to counter the economic incentive to destroy
forests for cattle ranching, agriculture and
other causes could come from carbon markets,
wealthy governments and philanthropists. It also
states that urgent actions including a ban on
clearing forests, developing businesses that
rely on standing forests and reducing demand for
commodities linked to deforestation, such as
palm oil, soya, beef and cocoa are also
necessary.
- Climate change is compounding inequalities
faced by women in agriculture according to a new
report from the UN Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO). Some of the
findings in ‘The status of women in agrifood
systems’ concluded that women working in
agriculture 'tend to do so under highly
unfavourable conditions' often in the face of
'climate-induced weather shocks and in
situations of conflict.’
- Pakistan plans to induct 14,000 megawatts of
renewable energy into the national grid over the
next 10 years in a bid to supply low-cost
electricity to consumers and fight climate
change. In February 2023, Pakistan’s total
energy production stood at 7,756 gigawatt-hours
(GWh) of which 5% was renewable
energy.
- As we are in the decisive decade for climate
action, reaching our 2030 climate change targets
requires us to add an average of 1,000 GW
renewable energy each year, according to a
recent IRENA
report.
- The temperature of the world’s ocean surface
has hit an all-time high since satellite records
began according to US government data. Climate
scientists said preliminary data
from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (Noaa) showed the average
temperature at the ocean’s surface has been at
21.1 °C since the start of April – beating the
previous high of 21 °C set in 2016.
- California has issued a progress report on actions over the
past year to build climate resilience across the
state. The Climate Adaptation Strategy outlines
projects and programs throughout the state
helping to protect people from the impacts of
climate change. California Governor Gavin Newsom
said: “Climate change is
happening all around us. In just the last year,
California experienced a record heat wave and
communities suffering from years of drought are
now facing historic flooding. We are acting now
with an all-of-the-above approach to help all
Californians prepare and adapt. California’s
Climate Adaptation Strategy recognizes that
extreme weather and other climate impacts
threaten communities in every part of our state
and accelerates actions to protect the most
vulnerable. While we have made great progress
over the last year, the climate crisis demands
we move further and faster to reduce risks to
our people.”
- Uganda Development Bank (UDB), has launched the UDB Climate
Finance Facility (CFF), a strategic Fund that
will make available affordable finance that aims
to promote climate-smart agriculture, ensure
climate resilient infrastructure and low carbon
industries. Addressing guests at the launch, the
Managing Director of UDB Ms. Patricia Ojangole
said; “The increasing threat of climate change
and environmental degradation has the potential
to present high socio-economic risks to the
economy. As the impacts continue to manifest
through floods, drought, landslides, animal and
crop epidemics, among other signs in different
parts of the country, they are more deleterious
to the poor and marginalized who depend largely
on natural resources for their
livelihoods.”
- With respect to the Global
Stocktake process that enables countries and
other stakeholders to see where they’re
collectively making progress toward meeting the
goals of the Paris Agreement, the summary
report of the second meeting of the
technical dialogue convened at COP 27 has been
published. In addition, the co-facilitators of the technical
dialogue invite Parties to the Paris
Agreement and non-Party stakeholders to submit a
one-page
poster before 22 May,
summarizing their inputs to the third and final
meeting of the technical dialogue (TD1.3), to be
displayed at the Bonn Climate Change Conference
in Bonn, Germany this June. The High-Level
Champions submission ahead of TD1.3 can be found
here. Also, the first workshop
for non-State Actors in Brazil was held in Sao
Paulo on April 11th. The event, organized by
CDP, the Climate Champions Latin America Team
and supported by the Climate and Society
Institute (iCS) aimed to promote capacity
building around the Global Stocktake and engage
relevant stakeholders in the
discussions.
- Shifting to a low-carbon economy can unlock
new jobs and opportunities but it must be done
in a way that is as socially and economically
fair as possible for everyone, according to
on-the-ground case studies contained in a new
report from UN Climate Change.
- From renewable energy in Ghana to
sustainable transport in Cambodia - experts
supporting the UNFCCC's Technology Mechanism
have been looking at transferable and scalable
examples of climate action that can bolster
national climate plans under the Paris
Agreement.
- The 2023
United Nations Small Island Developing States
Partnerships Awards are now accepting
applications. The Awards aim to reward the most
successful SIDS partnerships, highlight best
practices, increase the visibility of the SIDS
Partnership Framework, motivate the creation of
new SIDS partnerships and incentivize the
registrations of new partnerships for SIDS. The
deadline for the application is Friday 28 April
2023.
| |
Keeping up with the
Champions | |
- Razan
Al Mubarak attended the United Nations Permanent
Forum on Indigenous Issues(UNPFII)
this week. Together with Indigenous Youth Leader
Taylor Behn-Tsakoza and with COP28
Director-General Majid Al Suwaidi in attendance,
the High-Level Champion co-hosted an Indigenous Youth Dialogue
to better understand how to meaningfully engage
on global health, food and water security, as
well as nature and biodiversity. In addition, Al
Mubarak co-moderated a panel discussion with,
amongst others, Ms.Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim,
Co-chair of the International Indigenous Peoples
Forum on Climate Change( IIPFCC’s) and Global
Ambassador to the Race to Zero and the Race to
Resilience Ms. Xiye Bastida. During the
discussion Al Mubarak emphasized the importance
of including and respecting Indigenous values
and knowledge systems for planetary health and
climate change.
- As
many celebrate Ramadan, Passover and Easter, Al
Mubarak called for the shared principle of
compassion to unite us in our fight against
climate change in an op-ed published in
Arabian
Business.
Al Mubarak said the belief in treating others as
we’d like to be treated exists in every
religion, and the reminder to take care of each
other is especially pertinent this
month.
- In
an op-ed
published by Reuters, Mahmoud Mohieldin outlined
his proposal to address the current inequality
of poorer nations paying both the highest human
cost of climate change as well as the capital to
shield themselves from it. In the article,
Mohieldin sets out his “1% for 1.5C” proposal.
The idea is for Multilateral Development Banks
to extend concessional finance terms to
middle-income, as well as low-income countries
to help them pay for renewable energy and
essential infrastructure that can help them deal
with the increasing risks of climate change.
They would be able to borrow at a 1% interest
rate, with a 10-year grace period during which
they wouldn’t have to pay anything back, and
then a 20-year repayment phase. The difference
between the artificially low 1% rate the
countries pay and their market cost of finance
could be subsidized in part through the as-yet
unpaid portion of the promised $100 billion
climate finance pledge, estimated conservatively
at $20 billion annually.
- In
an opinion piece for The
Korea Herald,
Mohieldin highlighted the important role
innovation, smart technology and public-private
partnerships are playing in supporting
Korea’s climate agenda.
- Mohieldin
and Ms. Hannah Beswick, Senior Advisor to Al
Mubarak met with the High-Level Champions’
network of Global
Ambassadors.
The group convenes global leaders with a range
of expertise and knowledge across regions and
sectors to support the Race to Zero and Race to
Resilience. During the session Mohieldin and
Beswick thanked the group for their continued
support, outlined key priorities for both
campaigns and discussed opportunities and areas
for collaboration with the Ambassadors in the
year ahead.
- Mohieldin
was invited to speak
at The
European House - Ambrosetti’s annual
workshop on ‘Sustainable Finance and its Impact
on the Future of Business.”. During the session,
Mohieldin urged that advancing climate action
must go hand in hand with action on the
Sustainable Development Goals.
- During
the World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings, Mohieldin
attended the
Sustainable Debt Coalition
high level meeting. The Coalition was launched
at COP27 to provide a framework for
collaboration between creditor and borrower
nations, focusing on the nexus of sustainability
and debt management. During the discussion in
Washington D.C., Mohieldin urged the need to
unlock climate finance for developing countries
through various financial instruments; grants,
equity, debt for nature and climate swaps. He
also outlined how non-State actors can
participate in sustainable debt management using
philanthropic finance and private finance to
catalyse financing for development.
| |
- 22nd
Session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous
Issues: 17-28 April
- Singapore Maritime Week 24-28
April
- Fourth
UN World Data Forum 2023, 24-27
April
- Green
Climate Fund, Board Consultation Meeting, 24-28
April
- IWC
Scientific Committee Meeting 2023: 24 April
– 6 May
- ECOSOC
Youth Forum 2023, 25-27 April
- Latin
America and the Caribbean Regional Forum on
Sustainable Development 2023, 25-28
April
- Economic
Research Forum, 29th Annual Conference: The
Future of MENA Development, 4-6 May
- Basel
Convention COP16, Rotterdam Convention COP11,
and Stockholm Convention COP11: 1-12 May
- 25th
meeting of the Scientific and Technical Review
Panel to the Convention on Wetlands: 2-5 May
- 18th
Session of the UN Forum on Forests (UNFF
18): 8-12 May
- IUCN
C109 Council Meeting, 23-25 May
- Africa
CEO Forum, 2023 Annual Summit, 5-6 June
- Bonn
Climate Change Conference, 7-15 June
- Summit
for a New Financing Pact, 22-23 June
- Africa
Climate Week (ACW 2023), Nairobi, 4-8
September
- New York
Climate Week, 18-22 September
- Climate
Action Summit, United Nations, 18-22
September
- Middle
East and North Africa Climate Week (MENACW
2023) Riyadh, 9-12 October,
- Latin
America and Caribbean Climate Week (LACCW
2023), Panama City, 23-27 October
- COP
28, 30 November - 12 December
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