A CALL FOR INCREASED AMBITION AND ACCELERATED ACTION

Tuesday, 4 December, 9:00-10:00 a.m. CET | Press Conference Room Warszawa

The Secretary General will host a Climate Summit in September 2019 (on the margins of the 74th General Assembly) with the objective of increasing ambition and accelerating climate action towards 2020 and beyond.

The recent IPCC special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5 °C confirms the urgency of this call: the next 12 years are crucial to take ambitious action to reach the goals of the Paris Agreement. The report calls for rapid and far-reaching transitions in energy, land, urban and infrastructure (including transport and buildings), and industrial systems.

The climate summit will aim at demonstrating that progress can be achieved in all these areas, that solutions exist that can be brought to scale world wide making the case for leaders to commit to more ambition when they submit the Nationally Determined Contributions by 2020.

The summit will cultivate and deliver major outcomes on increasing national ambition and across Energy Transition; Industry Transition; Finance and Carbon Pricing; Nature-Based Solutions; Resilience; Cities and Local Action; and Youth and Citizen Mobilisation.

The Secretary-General is inviting all Heads of State and Government, and leaders from civil society, business, Finance and sub-national governments. He expects the leaders to demonstrate concrete action to keep the global increase of temperature at safe levels and enhance our collective resilience.

This briefing will be an opportunity for the Secretary General to outline his plans for the summit. His special envoy for the climate summit (Special Envoy Luis Alfonso de Alba) and his Special Advisor for climate change (Special Advisor Robert Orr) will provide detailed information about the preparations for the summit, the work ahead, the expected outcomes and the roadmap towards 2020 and beyond.

Programme:

  • Opening Remarks by Special Envoy Luis Alfonso de Alba. Why a climate Summit in 2019: the case for more ambition.
  • Remarks by Special Advisor Robert Orr. A multistakeholder approach towards accelerating climate action
  • Q&A
  • Closing remarks by the Secretary-General