UN climate action database gets major private sector boost
More than 50 new climate pledges have been added to the UN's online portal in a boost to momentum created by the Paris Agreement
More than 50 new climate commitments have been added to the United Nations’ online portal for companies, cities, and investors in a boost to momentum created by December’s Paris Agreement.
The pledges have been submitted to the UN’s Non-State Actor Zone for Climate Action (NAZCA) database.
More than 400 businesses, 120 investors and 150 cities and regions worldwide signed the Paris Pledge for Action at the UN climate summit in December and were invited to report on their climate change initiatives through the NAZCA and Lima-Paris Action Agenda portals.
The latest set of pledges has been added to more than 11,000 actions already registered to the NAZCA portal.
NAZCA was introduced in 2014 to showcase private sector and local authority work on combatting climate change.
The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which manages the portal, also launched a global campaign called 'We're Accelerating Climate Action' to raise awareness of the measures being implemented globally to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The campaign is focused on emissions reduction initiatives in developing countries including a programme in the Mexican city of Puebla (pictured) which has committed to cut GHG emissions by 90 per cent by 2050.
The campaign also includes a pledge by India's Tata Motors to reduce CO2 emissions by 50 per cent by 2020 and source 100 per cent of its electricity from renewables.
'We're Accelerating Climate Action' is designed to encourage more organisations and authorities to submit their actions, working with partners including We Mean Business, CDP, The Climate Group and the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives' Carbon Registry.
Nigel Topping, CEO of We Mean Business, said: "We will continue to mobilise our partners to make many more commitments that can be captured on the NAZCA portal as we head towards the UN Climate Change Conference in Morocco in November, including from the Global South."
The NAZCA portal operates alongside the range of larger actions included in the Lima-Paris Action Agenda (LPAA).
About 70 cooperative initiatives have signed up to the LPAA including the Removing Commodity Driven Deforestation from all Supply Chains by 2020 campaign and the International Solar Alliance, which is trying to mobilise $1 trillion in solar power investments by 2030.
