{"id":34683,"date":"2017-11-11T19:10:00","date_gmt":"2017-11-11T19:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/?p=34683"},"modified":"2018-04-22T11:48:41","modified_gmt":"2018-04-22T15:48:41","slug":"new-efforts-announced-at-cop23-for-oceans-transport-cities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/blog\/2017\/11\/new-efforts-announced-at-cop23-for-oceans-transport-cities\/","title":{"rendered":"New efforts announced at COP23 for oceans, transport, cities"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cities, the transport sector and ocean advocates today announced a number of new initiatives to push for further, faster climate action, at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 23<\/a>) in Bonn, Germany.<\/p>\n

These announcements were made under the auspices of the\u00a0Marrakech Partnership for Global Climate Action<\/a>, created last year to spur action by state and non-state sectors to help implement the\u00a0Paris Agreement<\/a>\u00a0on climate change.<\/p>\n

New Transport Decarbonisation Alliance<\/em><\/h5>\n

In a major new partnership, France, the Netherlands, Portugal, Costa Rica and the Paris Process on Mobility and Climate (PPMC) launched the\u00a0Transport Decarbonisation Alliance<\/em>to stimulate greater political leadership in the sector.<\/p>\n

Transport contributes about one quarter of all energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2<\/sub>) emissions and about 15-17 per cent of the entire spread of human CO2<\/sub>\u00a0emissions.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore ambitious and coordinated action on transport is required to deliver on the Paris Agreement,\u201d said Jos\u00e9 Mendes, Deputy Minister for Environment of Portugal.<\/p>\n

Six new voluntary sector initiatives were also introduced in Bonn to address specific aspects of transport and climate change. These include: the ‘below50’ (expanding the global market for the world’s most sustainable fuels); the EcoMobility Alliance (cities committed to sustainable transport); EV100 (accelerating the transition to electro-mobility); Walk 21 (valuing and delivering more walkable communities); the Global Strategy for Cleaner Fuels and Vehicles; and the Transforming Urban Mobility Initiative (accelerating implementation of sustainable urban transport development and mitigation of climate change).<\/p>\n

Cities and communities speed coordinated climate action<\/em><\/h5>\n

Similarly, global cities and communities also announced new efforts Saturday to coordinate their climate action commitments to deliver bigger and faster results together.<\/p>\n

\u201cLocal and regional governments are making commitments that will help national Governments close the gap between current national commitments and the emissions reductions needed to achieve the Paris Agreement targets\u201d, said Gino Van Begin, Secretary General of ICLEI \u2013 Local Governments for Sustainability, a global network of more than 1,500 cities, towns and regions working together for sustainable development.<\/p>\n

Urban areas account for around two-thirds of the world’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from global energy use. Their overall contribution to total greenhouse gas emissions is estimated at between 37 and 49 per cent globally, depending on base assumptions of data used.<\/p>\n

Also at a press conference at COP 23, the Mayor of city of Pittsburgh (in the United States), William Peduto, announced that 367 American mayors have agreed to be \u201cpart of the Paris Agreement no matter what our Federal Government did\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s going to happen at the local level\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

The new initiatives announced include efforts ICLEI and the global NDC Partnership (a coalition of countries and institutions working to mobilize support for climate goals and enhancing sustainable development) to design, implement and align climate action strategies across all levels of governments.<\/p>\n

Similarly, the Cities Climate Finance Leadership Alliance (a group of some 40 organizations working to mobilize investment in low-carbon and climate-resilient infrastructure in cities and urban areas internationally) is mapping available finance to match known infrastructure projects \u2013 a critical requirement to help local governments identify funding.<\/p>\n

Threat of ocean warming and ocean acidification<\/em><\/h5>\n

Also Saturday at COP 23, a new declaration was signed to strengthen global response to climate change impacts on oceans and coastal zones.<\/p>\n

Oceans are the planet’s largest carbon sink, a major regulating force of global climate, and fundamental to the survival and well-being of humanity.<\/p>\n

\u201cOceans have featured little in the UN climate negotiations to date, and yet they are not only important for planetary survival but also offer great opportunities for innovation towards a low-carbon blue economy\u201d, said Biliana Cicin-Sain, President of the Global Ocean Forum.<\/p>\n

Isabel Torres de Noronha, Executive Secretary of the Future Ocean Alliance, a non-governmental organization, in an interview with\u00a0UN News<\/em>, underscored that ocean acidification \u201cmight put at risk not only ecosystems but also many economic activities and food security of coastal populations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among initiatives at national level, she highlighted one from Viet Nam about strengthening the coastline by planting forests of mangroves.<\/p>\n

Read more COP23 coverage.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>

<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a major new partnership, France, the Netherlands, Portugal, Costa Rica and the Paris Process on Mobility and Climate (PPMC) launched the Transport Decarbonisation Alliance to stimulate greater political leadership in the sector. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":230,"featured_media":34679,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[144,7265],"class_list":["post-34683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate-change","tag-climate-change","tag-cop23"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/230"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}