Joint Appeal from the United Nations system to the Secretary-General's Climate Action Summit

In 2015, world leaders gathered in Paris to agree on a blueprint for climate action that was intended to set the world on a clear path for reversing the effects of climate change and promoting sustainable development. However, two and a half years after the Paris Agreement entered into force in 2018, carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere continue to break records, and, according to the 2018 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, emissions of greenhouse gases must be reduced to net zero by the middle of the twenty-first century to have a reasonable chance of limiting global warming to 1.5°C. This requires immediate action and rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.

Recognizing climate change as an existential global threat, the Secretary-General decided to convene a summit on climate action in New York on 23 September 2019, inviting all leaders to make a concerted effort to mobilize the international community to raise its ambition substantially and muster political will for transformative action to combat climate change.

In order to leverage the collective capacities of the United Nations system in support of the vision of the Secretary-General of an action-oriented summit, CEB held a dedicated discussion on the topic of climate change in May 2019 where it adopted a joint appeal for action, which combined the United Nations system’s strategic vision of realizing agreed climate ambitions with a commitment to undertaking action and targets in the areas of mitigation, adaptation, climate finance and innovation.