Key Questions >>>
- How can contributions of sub-national actors and companies be better factored in the Nationally Determined Contributions?
- What concrete steps are needed in terms of time-based initiatives for implementation, financing and monitoring of climate actions to meet the 1.5°C temperature goal?
- What mechanisms are needed to drive sub-national actions in terms of sustainable development goals, climate change mitigation and climate change adaptation?
- How can sub-national actors, in both developed and developing countries, be more empowered to take climate actions?
Introduction
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2018 special report on warming of 1.5°C stressed on the need for all actors including state, sub-national, and non-state to strengthen climate action, and highlighted cooperation between actors as a critical mechanism for halving emissions by 2030 in order to meet the 1.5°C goal (IPCC 2018). Commitments by individual cities, regions and companies can help in the momentum in countries where national governments are rolling back policies on climate change. In the case of the US, for instance, while federal policies have moved backwards, fortunately at the level of the states and cities, there are encouraging signs of action on climate change.
Impact of sub-national actions towards the 1.5°C goal
Based on available quantifiable commitments by sub-national governments and companies, a recent report by the New Climate Institute (NCI et al. 2019) has quantified the impacts of sub-national and company climate actions. The report finds that global GHG emissions in 2030 would be 1.2 to 2.0 GtCO2e lower than the current national policies scenario if the recorded and quantified commitments by individual cities, regions and companies in the ten major emitting economies are fully implemented. This range is roughly equivalent to Canada and Japan’s combined emissions in 2016. For the United States, the aggregate potential impact of recorded and quantified individual commitments would bring the country close to the upper bound of its 2025 NDC target.
Synergies with adaptation and sustainable development goals
Sub-national governments are best placed to respond through climate change adaptation policies. While climate change is a global problem, the impacts of climate change will be felt at the local level and hence actions by sub-national governments, communities and companies is essential. Moreover there are synergies of sub-national measures with the sustainable development goals (SDGs). Besides Goal 13 (climate actions), sub-national actors are absolutely crucial for Goal 7 (sustainable energy), Goal 9 (industry, infrastructure and innovation); Goal 11 (sustainable cities), Goal 12 (sustainable consumption and production); and Goal 17 (means of implementation).
Leadership
While multilateral organizations and many national governments still do not have formal institutional mechanisms in terms of holistically engaging with sub-national governments, companies and communities are forging ahead with their own climate change policies. Former Governor of California, Hon’ble Arnold Schwarzenegger has been responsible for focusing on initiatives at the subnational level in which entities across the globe are taking action at the subnational level. R20 – Regions of Climate Action is one of the many networked initiatives which has directed its efforts to implement the transition to a low-carbon green economy, whereby natural resources are conserved, fossil fuel use is limited, public health is protected and enhanced, while societies promote equality.
Ways forward
More than 6,000 cities and regions have made quantifiable commitments to reduce GHG emissions and about 1,500 companies report quantifiable climate action commitments to the Carbon Disclosure Project. This would need to be up-scaled and more sub-national governments, companies and communities need to assume a leadership role. There is a lot that leaders at the subnational level can do. These now need to be identified with time based initiatives and concrete goals in terms of ambition, planning, financing and monitoring of emission targets.
Questions
- The above discussion raises the following questions:
- How can contributions of sub-national actors and companies be better factored in the Nationally Determined Contributions?
- What concrete steps are needed in terms of time-based initiatives for implementation, financing and monitoring of climate actions to meet the 1.5°C temperature goal?
- What mechanisms are needed to drive sub-national actions in terms of sustainable development goals, climate change mitigation and climate change adaptation?
- How can sub-national actors, in both developed and developing countries, be more empowered to take climate actions?
References
IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) (2018), “Summary for Policymakers”. In: Global Warming of 1.5°C. An IPCC Special Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty [Masson-Delmotte, V., P. Zhai, H.-O. Pörtner, D. Roberts, J. Skea, P.R. Shukla, A. Pirani, W. Moufouma-Okia, C. Péan, R. Pidcock, S. Connors, J.B.R. Matthews, Y. Chen, X. Zhou, M.I. Gomis, E. Lonnoy, T. Maycock, M. Tignor, and T. Waterfield (eds.)], Geneva: IPCC.
NCI et al. (2019), Global climate action from cities, regions and businesses: Impact of individual actors and cooperative initiatives on global and national emissions, Research report prepared by the team of: Takeshi Kuramochi, Swithin Lui, Niklas Höhne, Sybrig Smit, Maria Jose de Villafranca Casas, Frederic Hans, Leonardo Nascimento, Paola Tanguy, Angel Hsu, Amy Weinfurter, Zhi Yi Yeo, Yunsoo Kim, Mia Raghavan, Claire Inciong Krummenacher, Yihao Xie, Mark Roelfsema, Sander Chan, Thomas Hale, NewClimate Institute, Data-Driven Lab, PBL, German Development Institute/Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE), Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford.
R20 (Regions of Climate Action) (2020), “About Us”, Regions of Climate Action, URL: https://regions20.org/about-us-2/#r20-mission.