Platform for cities and cos for their climate actions by UN

NEW DELHI: As the world is looking for various options to galvanise different forces for taking actions against the challenges of climate change, the United Nations (UN) has launched a unique platform where companies, cities, regions and investors will be able to directly register their "climate action commitments" and show to the global community what all they are doing to face the common threat of global warming.
The UN move comes ahead of the global climate summit in Paris (COP 21) in December when the world is expected to sign a deal to jointly fight the menace of climate change through various actions including mitigation (emission cuts), adaptation and extending financial and technical support.
The web-based platform seeking companies, cities and investors to specify their actions to fight climate change was launched on the concluding day of the 'Business & Climate Summit' in Paris on Thursday.
The initiative is called NAZCA - Non-State Actor Zone for Climate Action - which is designed to catalyse public and private sector action on climate change before and after 2020, when the Paris universal climate agreement will take effect.
This is an additional platform beyond countries' specific commitment as part of their contribution to fight climate change through various intended policy interventions and actions -- called Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC). So far, 38 countries including USA, Canada, Mexico and Switzerland have submitted their INDCs, promising emission cuts and other actions beyond 2020.
The announcement of the NAZCA platform was made by the UN along with the governments of France and Peru. The move is part of the scope of the Lima-Paris Action Agenda. The last global climate summit (COP20) had taken place in Peru's capital Lima in December, 2014 where the countries had decided to come out with their INDCs which would be basis of negotiations for the COP21 in Paris.
Referring to the NAZCA platform, the UNFCCC in its statement said, "The commitments, which will add critical momentum towards the new universal climate agreement in December, will be housed and showcased in an updated version of the NAZCA portal".
It comes just two days after Laurent Fabius, French Foreign Minister and incoming President of the UN Climate Change Conference, and Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change UNFCCC), called on businesses and investors to "play their full part" to "demonstrate their commitment to preserving our planet and promoting the transition towards a lower-carbon development model."
"The up-dated NAZCA portal is now ready to receive commitments from such entities and is fast becoming the go-to place where business, cities and investors can respond to Laurent Fabius’ and Christiana Figueres’ clear call to action", said the UNFCCC.
The online registration process – in partnership with CDP, the Carbon Climate Registry and Global Investors on Climate Change – provides a simple system for ensuring that climate commitments are registered with the UN in time for Par s.
Laurent Fabius said: "These actions show that governments are not alone in their efforts to bend the emissions curve and make the world a safer place. There is a huge groundswell of support building on the part of business, investors, cities and regions. What we see here is highly encouraging and symptomatic of how that tide has turned in favour of real action on the ground".
Alongside the new online registration process, the NAZCA portal will also be publishing investor data for the first time. This data has been provided by the Investor Platform for Climate Actions (IIGCC), which is a joint project of IIGCC in Europe, Ceres’ Investor Network on Climate Risk (INCR) in North America, IGCC in Australia/New Zealand, ASrIA’s Asia Investor Group on Climate Change (AIGCC), PRI, CDP and UNEP FI.
Welcoming the new announcement, Christiana Figueres said: “Looking at these announcements, we see leading businesses eager to do their part and reap the many benefits the transition to the green economy offers. Governments are hugely encouraged by support of businesses, investors, cities and regions. That support grows by the day, which in turn opens space for more ambition in Paris and beyond".
Business leaders from across the globe during the two-day summit called for more ambition from national governments in their INDCs and announced that they will actively support leadership from policymakers who set clear frameworks to accelerate investment and deployment of climate-friendly solutions.
The Business & Climate Summit was initiated following the UN Secretary General’s call for the private sector to take a more active role in the world decarbonisation process at the UN Climate Summit in New York last year. As a midway point between that meeting in New York and COP 21 later this year in Paris, the summit (May 20-21) marked a key moment for the business voice on climate action to be raised and heard by policymakers.
Welcoming the Business & Climate Summit, Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon earlier said: "This is an important milestone on the way to the Paris climate conference in December. It shows that the engagement of the private sector that began at the Climate Summit in New York last September has continued. Business leaders are now in the vanguard of the movement to take climate action."