News taken from UNFCCC news room
Bonn, 22 April 2015 – To coincide with Earth Day, over 500 new city actions, showcasing a wealth of inspiring climate action, are being featured on a UN-hosted website, with the aim of building momentum for the upcoming global climate agreement in Paris.
Actions and targets, communicated by cities ranging from Amsterdam, Rio de Janeiro to Yokohama, range from increases in energy efficiency and deployment of renewables to green procurement and adaptation action.
The Non-State Actor Zone for Climate Action (NAZCA) portal was launched last year at the UN climate change conference in Lima by Manuel Pulgar Vidal, President of COP 20.
It is demonstrating the sheer wealth of climate actions of key non-state actors including municipalities, regions and investors in order to inspire others to raise their ambition in support of the new universal climate agreement.
Cities produce around 70% of energy-related emissions and their activities to reduce these while building resilience are crucial for supporting governments as they publish and prepare their climate plans for the coming years and decades.
Many cities are also highly vulnerable to climate change, especially those on or in the vicinity of coastlines: while many have also seen the link between combating climate change and transforming the urban infrastructure and environment into a healthier and more economically dynamic place.
Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the the UN Climate Convention (UNFCCC), said: “Nations will come together to sign a universal agreement on climate change at the UN Climate Conference in Paris in December. By demonstrating action on NAZCA, cities can support and catalyze ever higher ambition by governments while signaling their determination to be part of the transformation towards a healthier, safer and more secure world. We are grateful for the collaboration with CDP, the carbonn Climate Registry, the Compact of Mayors and others, and we look forward to showcasing more climate action from cities in the future."
Cities Setting Science-Based Targets
Many of the cities who have submitted information to the portal are showing leadership by setting science-based targets to ensure that the world will stay below the internationally agreed limit of a maximum 2 degrees Celsius global average temperature rise.
According to the best available climate science, the world needs to peak global emissions in the next decade to successfully address climate change, triggering a deep de-carbonization of the global economy.
For example, Boston intends to reduce community-wide CO2 emissions by 80% by 2050 over 1990 levels through building retrofits, renewable energy sources, on-site renewable energy installations and better waste and industrial pollution management.
Jakarta intends to reduce CO2 emissions from government operations by 30% from 2005 to 2030 through sustainable building standards and retrofits, energy efficient lighting, solar-powered streetlights, and landfill gas capture and power generation.
The city data presented on the NAZCA portal was reported to CDP’s cities program – which forms part of CDP’s global environmental reporting system – and the carbonn Climate Registry.
CDP and the carbonn Climate Registry are established, credible sources with a strong track record of reporting and tracking progress that the NAZCA portal draws data from. In particular, their regular reporting cycles will enable future progress on actions to be updated to NAZCA in the future.
Today's Presentation of City Data Part of Wider Showcasing of Climate Actions from Non-State Actors
The cities being featured are part of an ongoing process to showcase climate actions from non-state actors. In the run-up to the UN climate change conference (COP 21) in Paris, information on climate actions from cities, businesses, investors and subnational regions will be continuously added to the NAZCA portal.
Many of these actions are happening in partnership with governments, organizations and international bodies, including the United Nations. Three such actions joining NAZCA today are the Compact of States and Regions, the Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance, and the Compact of Mayors.
Michael R. Bloomberg, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Cities and Climate Change said, "Cities are helping to lead the way in addressing climate change. I congratulate the cities making their pledges public and transparent through the Compact of Mayors and NAZCA. It's a crucial step that will help show nations that setting and achieving ambitious climate goals really is possible."
The Portal is also showcasing several inspiring initiatives under the Lima-Paris Action Agenda. The agenda is designed to catalyze action on climate change by governments and non-state actors before 2020, when the new global agreement is to take effect, and after 2020. Many of these initiatives emerged from the UN Secretary-General's Climate Summit last September. These include the Low-Carbon Sustainable Rail Transport Challenge; Removing Commodity-Drive Deforestation from Supply Chains and the Global Energy Efficiency Accelerator Platform.
The Lima-Paris Action Agenda was agreed at the end of last year by the Peruvian COP 20 Presidency, the incoming French COP 21 Presidency, the office of the UN Secretary-General and the UNFCCC secretariat.
See the NAZCA Portal
To coincide with Earth Day on 22 April, the UN Climate Change Secretariat in Bonn today opened an exhibition of art works that once graced the walls of the first ever UN Climate Change Conference 20 years ago.
The restored images by the German artist Charles Wilp, kindly given to the secretariat on permanent loan by his widow Ingrid Wilp for display, relate to the dangers posed by environmental threats including deforestation, depletion of the ozone layer and climate change.
Dubbed “View from Space”, the series of lithographs depicts images of the globe wrapped in gold foil, underscoring the fragility of the planet.
The Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Christiana Figueres said: “These thought-provoking art works remind us of the vision, the optimism and the dynamism that surrounded the first UN climate convention meeting two decades ago—optimism and momentum that is again alive and well as governments prepare to meet to ink a new universal climate agreement in Paris in December”.
“The artist Charles Wilp was equally optimistic about humanity’s ability to overcome major odds through international cooperation. The fact that mankind is winning the battle against depletion of the ozone layer with the assistance of the UN Montreal Protocol shows that international cooperation is our best ally for delivering on the threats but also the opportunities of global environmental challenges,” she added.
For several years the images were exhibited in Haus Carstanjen, former headquarters of the UN Climate Change Secretariat, before being restored and displayed in the new secretariat building.
Charles Wilp (1933 – 2005) was a student of New York photographer Man Ray and created photography, paintings, movies and music, along with iconic works of pop art for the advertising industry.
His art works now hanging in Bonn are based on a digitalized laser scan of Planet Earth taken from the satellite Voyager 2, printed on gold-plated satellite foil and combined with Stycast, a highly robust material used in satellite construction.
The images include quotes by historic personalities, for example by Laotse (“There is only one thing you should not dare – to act against nature”) and by Mahatma Gandhi (“As the forests give us breath, we need to protect them – the trees and the air”).
Several pieces of Charles Wilp’s work flew in space in 1994 to the MIR space station, where they were stamped by cosmonauts including the German astronaut Ulf Merbold.