UN Climate Change News, 22 November 2019 –The High-Level Climate Champion for Chile, Gonzalo Muñoz, has published a letter which calls on all actors – cities, regions, businesses, and investors – to join Chile’s Climate Ambition Alliance at the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference COP25 in Madrid in December.

At the UN Secretary-General’s Climate Summit in New York in September, Chile announced the ‘Climate Ambition Alliance’, capturing the commitments of nations, regions, cities, businesses and investors towards achieving net-zero CO2 emissions by 2050.

This alliance brings together nations upscaling action by 2020, as well as those working towards achieving net zero CO2 emissions by 2050, which currently includes  65 countries and the EU, 10 regions, 102 cities, 93 businesses and 12 investors – all committed to net zero CO2 emissions by 2050.

All members of the Alliance are already committed towards achieving net zero CO2 emissions by 2050, in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement.

The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in its special report on global warming of 1.5 degrees, states that in model pathways of 1.5°C, global net anthropogenic CO2 emissions reach net zero around 2050.  This target covers CO2 emissions and implies that sinks (for example forests) and other means are used to compensate residual emissions.  

Therefore, formulations such as ‘net zero carbon emissions’, ‘net zero CO2 emissions’, ‘carbon neutrality’, ‘decarbonization’, ‘climate neutrality’ or ‘net zero GHG emissions’ qualify for the alliance as long as they denote net zero CO2 emissions by 2050 or a more stringent objective in terms of coverage of greenhouse gases or timeframe.

New nations and stakeholders are to be recognized by the Alliance at COP25 

The letter by the High-Level Climate Champion for Chile complements messages published last week by President-designate of COP25, Minister Carolina Schmidt, which similarly invited both Parties and non-Party stakeholders to join the Alliance.

New members will be announced on Wednesday, 11 December at COP25, as part of a special day of action that the Government of Chile is convening.

The intention is to significantly grow the Alliance at Chile’s COP25 in Madrid in order to set the stage for the UN Climate Change Conference COP26 next year in Glasgow, by when governments must submit enhanced national climate plans.

The process to be recognized as part of the Alliance

The high-level Champion is harnessing this ‘call to action’ to reach new coalitions and initiatives with aims that exactly match the Alliance’s criteria – and which have a credible tracking and validation process in place. 
 
New coalitions and initiatives are invited to contact: mphillips@unfccc.int

With regard to the existing initiatives, the high-level Champion describes the following process to be recognized under the Alliance:

• Businesses may consider reaching out to ‘Business Ambition for 1.5C – Our Only Future here.
• Regions may consider reaching out to the Under2 Coalition by writing to this email address:NKaur@theclimategroup.org
• Investors may consider reaching out to the United Nations-Convened Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance here.
• Cities may consider reaching out to Deadline 2020 by writing to: acavicchioli@c40.org