Right now, we’re on track for climate catastrophe, with well over two degrees Celsius of warming, and the deal being drafted here is still a long way from being the deal we need for climate safety.
There’s just a couple of days of negotiations left, and we need something transformative if we’re going to turn this around. And we might just have it.
Partly inspired by the climate manifesto 1.8 million of us signed, an Avaaz member and legal expert drafted THE climate deal the world needs. It covers everything we care about -- from an urgent end to fossil fuels, to massively scaled up support for vulnerable countries on the frontline. If we can get signatures from every single country on Earth, the Avaaz team can deliver it directly to negotiators in Glasgow, demanding they back the People’s Climate Deal and fight for it in the talks!
- Bert Wander, CEO
Read on below for the full text of the People's Climate Deal:
Note: we're moving fast and negotiations are intensifying. As we get more input the text of the deal might change to make it a more effective advocacy tool -- but we’ll keep it updated here so everyone can see the latest version!Decision 1/CP.26
THE GLASGOW EQUITY & AMBITION PACT
A Code Red for Humanity to Address the Climate Emergency
The Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement,
Cognizant of the increasing and legitimate concerns of civil society, children, youth, women, climate justice activists and indigenous peoples in calling for urgent and ambitious global climate justice,
Alarmed by the latest findings of the IPCC, which is a ‘Code Red for Humanity’, and a ‘climate emergency’ confirms the need for the most ambitious adaptation and mitigation efforts within this decade to prevent the most catastrophic climate impacts,
Recognizing the impact of the global pandemic on all of humanity, in particular those most vulnerable to climate change, including children, youth, women, indigenous peoples, marginalized communities, persons with disabilities and the elderly, and further recognizing the pandemic has increased their vulnerability, especially in those countries disproportionately impacted by climate change as well as unfairly increased debt in developing countries,
Acknowledging that climate change is a common concern of humankind, Parties should, when taking action to address climate change, respect, promote and consider their respective obligations on human rights, the right to health, the rights of indigenous peoples, local communities, migrants, children, persons with disabilities and people in vulnerable situations and the right to development, as well as gender equality, empowerment of women and intergenerational equity,
Noting the importance of ensuring the integrity of all ecosystems, including the ocean and the cryosphere, and the protection of biodiversity, recognized by some cultures as Mother Earth, and noting the importance for some of the concept of ‘climate justice’ when taking action to address climate change,
Recalling the imperatives of a just and inclusive transition of the workforce and the creation of decent work and quality jobs,
I. SCIENCE
- Notes with alarming concern the state of the global climate system and recognizes the importance of the best available science for effective climate action and policymaking;
- Recognize the important work of the IPCC and its value as a basis for characterizing adaptation needs and strategies and welcomes upcoming IPCC reports and the consideration of any future work dedicated to adaptation and climate tipping points;
- Welcomes the IPBES-IPCC 2021 Co-sponsored Workshop Report on Biodiversity and Climate Change and invites the IPCC and IPBES to provide a joint special report on the linkages between biodiversity and climate change.
II. ADAPTATION
- Commit to significantly increase adaptation finance before 2025 and at least doubling global adaptation finance by 2022, with the aim of achieving a 50 / 50 balance between mitigation and adaptation finance, which is accessible, ensuring that no one, especially the most vulnerable, is left behind;
- Decide to operationalize the global goal on adaptation as part of the Paris Agreement with an aim of urgently enhancing adaptation capacity, strengthening resilience, and reducing vulnerability to climate change;
- Recalls that the current need for adaptation and resilience is increasingly significant and that greater levels of mitigation can reduce the need for additional adaptation efforts, and that greater adaptation needs can involve greater adaptation costs;
- Calls on Parties to prepare and submit national adaptation plans and communications in time for their consideration in the global stocktake, recognizing the importance of support for, and international cooperation on, adaptation efforts, and considering the needs of developing country Parties, especially those that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change.
III. ADAPTATION FINANCE
- Notes with serious concern that the current provision of climate finance for adaptation is insufficient to respond to worsening climate change impacts in developing countries;
- Recalls Article 9, paragraph 4 of the Paris Agreement and calls upon developed country parties to address the adaptation finance gap by scaling up adaptation finance to at least double current levels as a step towards achieving a balance between mitigation and adaptation in the provision of scaled-up financial resources;
- Welcomes recent commitments made by many developed country Parties to increase their provision of climate finance to support adaptation in developing country Parties in response to their growing needs;
- Recognizes the importance of the adequacy, predictability and sustainability of adaptation finance, including the value of the Adaptation Fund in delivering dedicated support for adaptation, and invites developed country Parties to consider multi-annual pledges;
- Agrees to launch a work programme for a post-2025 climate finance goal, including an adaptation finance goal and a separate loss and damage finance goal based on science, an assessment of needs and priorities of developing countries, and lessons from the $100 billion goal.
IV. MITIGATION
- Commits to an acceleration of mitigation ambition to address the significant gap between the aggregate effect of Parties’ mitigation efforts and calls on all Parties to ‘course correct’ having regard to common but differentiated responsibilities and equity, by providing new, updated NDCs or strengthen their 2030 targets, in advance of the twenty-seventh session of the Conference of the Parties (2022) and every year thereafter on an annual basis until such time as the gap is closed;
- Stresses the urgency to collectively halve global emissions by 2030 and for those Parties that have yet to do so, to enhance ambition in line with the long-term goal of the Paris Agreement and their respective fair share to ensure the highest possible mitigation and adaptation efforts by all Parties;
- Recognizes the number of Parties and non-party Stakeholders that have made pledges concerning the energy transition, halting deforestation and other pledges, and requests they deliver long-term strategies, which align with higher 2030 ambition and the global temperature goal, deliver real, permanent and meaningful emissions reduction on the timescale needed, and rely on real solutions rather than risky technologies or offset schemes for their implementation as soon as possible, and as an input to the first Global Stocktake;
- Also recognizes that limiting global warming to 1.5 °C requires rapid, deep and sustained transformations to avoid emissions of greenhouse gases, including reducing emissions of global carbon dioxide by 45 per cent by 2030 relative to the 2010 level and a complete decarbonisation of high emitting sectors by mid century;
- Commits to accelerate and urgently scale up the energy transition this decade, and to immediately cease issuance of new permits for coal, oil and gas; to phase out coal as soon as possible; ensure a managed decline of coal, oil and gas; and accelerate the retirement of coal power, taking account of the social and economic impacts on individuals and communities and ensuring financial, technical and social support and a just and inclusive transition for affected workers, sectors and communities;
- Commits to a collective goal of reducing global methane emissions by 45 percent from 2020 levels by 2030, and to take aggressive action to reduce emissions of all super-pollutants, including hydrofluorocarbons and black carbon;
- Commits to support ambitious policies to reduce emissions in transport sectors, including to take more ambitious climate action in shipping and aviation, including through non-market-based approaches;
- Decides to establish a work programme to urgently scale-up mitigation ambition and implementation during the critical decade of the 2020s, to be implemented by 2023;
- Calls on all Parties voluntarily participating in cooperative approaches under Article 6 to ensure enhanced mitigation and adaptation ambition and ensure real and permanent emissions reductions with environmental integrity, adjusted downwards on a continual basis, whilst respecting the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities.
V. JOINT ADAPTATION MITIGATION
- Recognize the essential contribution of terrestrial, freshwater, coastal and marine ecosystems to support both adaptation and mitigation under the Paris Agreement and the essential contribution of nature to addressing climate change and its impacts and the need to address climate change and biodiversity loss in an integrated manner;
- Recognize the importance of Indigenous Peoples’ and Local Communities’ stewardship of nature, their adaptation needs, and their traditional and local knowledge systems in addressing climate change and biodiversity loss in an integrated manner;
- Recognize the critical role that sustainable rangelands and pastoralism play in maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services and other natural resources, and noting the unique vulnerability of pastoralists to climate change, and commit to working collectively to halt and reverse degradation in grasslands and rangelands, taking into account traditional knowledge in sectors such as agropastoralism, livestock, and agroforestry;
- Acknowledge with appreciation the financial pledges made by Parties and non-Party Stakeholders during COP26 to support Indigenous Peoples and local communities, including through capacity building and financial support for group activities, collective governance structures and management systems, and sustainable livelihoods; and to secure, strengthen and protect Indigenous Peoples’ and local communities’ land and resource rights and conflict resolution mechanisms, and to support and protect frontline defenders, as important priority actions to mitigate and adapt to climate change;
- Recognize that the protection and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystems must be conducted in parallel to, not instead of, an urgent fossil-fuel phase-out and economy-wide emissions reductions;
- Calls on Parties to maximize the potential of ambitious and rigorous ecosystem protection, restoration, and sustainable management for climate change mitigation and adaptation in their Nationally Determined Contributions, and National Adaptation Plans through a gender sensitive rights-based approach, while respecting, upholding, and promoting the rights of Indigenous Peoples, including their right to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent;
- Commit to working collectively to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030 or sooner, and to strengthen shared efforts to protect and restore forests and other terrestrial ecosystems, whilst ensuring food security, gender equality, reducing vulnerability, building resilience and enhancing rural livelihoods, including through empowering communities, especially women, and recognition of the multiple values of forests, while recognising the rights of Indigenous Peoples, as well as local communities;
- Calls on Parties to facilitate trade and development policies, common standards, and best practices related to trade and market development, smallholder support including gender equality, traceability and transparency and research, development, and innovation, internationally and domestically, that promote sustainable and zero deforestation commodity production and consumption, and do not drive deforestation and forest or land degradation;
- Commit to ensuring that existing supply chains, and the new and emerging supply chains required for the transition, create decent work for all, including for the most marginalised, and create equitable employment across borders.
VI. FINANCE, TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER AND CAPACITY BUILDING FOR MITIGATION AND ADAPTATION
- Acknowledges the growing need of developing country Parties, in particular due to the increasing impacts of climate change and increased indebtedness as a consequence of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, and calls for greater support to be channelled through grants, debt cancellation and highly concessional forms of finance;
- Recalls the commitment made by developed country Parties, to a goal of mobilizing jointly USD 100 billion per year by 2020 to address the needs of developing country Parties, in accordance with decision 1/CP.16, and expressing deep disappointment that this goal has not been met;
- Calls on developed countries to meet the USD100 billion goal in 2022 at the latest, together with finance to make up the shortfall between 2020 and 2022 and to provide a finance Delivery Plan to deliver USD 500 billion for the 2020 - 2024 period to support urgent climate action and support frontline communities in developing countries equally balanced between adaptation and mitigation to address the climate emergency;
- Commits to ending public support, including financial support and subsidies for coal, oil, and gas by the end of 2022, including the phase out of coal-fired power plants in a manner which is consistent with a 1.5°C warming limit and the goals of the Paris Agreement;
- Calls on the private sector, multilateral development banks and other financial institutions, to continue supporting the development and implementation of measures to avert, minimize and address the adverse impacts of climate change, including through prioritising support for the energy transition and to end support for coal, oil and gas by the end of 2022, whilst adhering to the principle of ‘do no harm’;
- Commit to urgently scaling up public finance for the protection and restoration of natural forests and ecosystems, including through innovative sources of finance and non-market approaches, including cancellation of debt in developing countries, while also improving its effectiveness and accessibility and support for Indigenous Peoples and local communities;
- Facilitate the alignment of financial flows with international goals to reverse forest loss and degradation, while ensuring robust policies and systems are in place to accelerate the transition to an economy that is resilient and advances the protection and restoration of natural forest and ecosystems, sustainable land use, biodiversity, and climate goals in an integrated manner;
- Emphasizes the continued challenges that developing countries face in accessing financial, technology and capacity-building support, and recognize the urgent need to enhance the provision of support to developing country Parties for strengthening their national adaptation and mitigation efforts;
- Recalls that the provision of scaled-up financial resources should aim to achieve a balance between adaptation and mitigation, considering country-driven strategies, and the priorities and needs of developing country Parties, especially those that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change and have significant capacity constraints, such as the LDCs and SIDS considering the need for public and grant-based resources for adaptation.
VII. LOSS AND DAMAGE
- Acknowledges that climate change has already and will increasingly cause loss and damage and, as temperatures rise, impacts from climate and weather extremes, as well as slow onset events, will pose an ever-greater social, economic and environmental threat;
- Reiterates the urgency of scaling up action and support, including finance, technology transfer and capacity-building, for implementing approaches for averting, minimizing and addressing loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change in developing country Parties that are particularly vulnerable;
- Decides to established a loss and damage finance facility and launch a loss and damage finance roadmap as part of the WIM mandate that helps to provide recommendations on operationalizing the finance facility, identifying various sources of finance as well as distribution mechanisms, and provide recommendations for parties to consider for a COP decision, based on the submissions from parties and observers, consultations, inputs and technical papers by COP27;
- Decides to provide sufficient and needs-based Loss and Damage finance, in addition to the USD100 billion per year committed for mitigation and adaptation, on the basis of equity, historical responsibility and global solidarity, applying the ‘Polluter Pays Principle’.
VIII. IMPLEMENTATION
- Welcomes the start of the global stocktake and expresses its determination for the process to be comprehensive and inclusive, address necessary structural and systemic change, and increase ambition as part of a global effort based on equity and the best available science;
- Recognizes that education can support urgent climate action through the integration of climate change in formal education systems, professional training, and public awareness and through diverse multi-stakeholder and cross-sectoral collaboration between the education and environment sectors, which ensure gender equality;
- Commits to support workers in a just and inclusive transition, especially communities and regions that are particularly vulnerable to the economic, employment and social effects of a global transition away from carbon-intensive activity, including related to land use, and support and promote gender balanced and inclusive social dialogue and stakeholder engagement to ensure no one is left behind;
- Recognizes that the just transition will require enabling frameworks and wider economic and industrial support for workers, enterprises, communities, and countries to create sustainable, low and zero carbon competitive economies that are aligned with the long-term goal of the Paris Agreement and reduce poverty and inequality, including through sustainable work for people in their local areas, which is coupled with effective support for reskilling and training, as well as adequate, inclusive, and sustainable social protections for those in need, especially disadvantaged groups, such as those living in poverty, marginalised groups, indigenous peoples, women, and workers in the informal economy;
- Expresses appreciation for the contributions received from Parties and observers in support of gender mainstreaming work undertaken through the enhanced Lima work programme on gender and its Gender Action Plan to date and calls on all Parties to continue work under the Gender Action Plan and link it across all other areas of decision-making, particularly in addressing gender-responsive means of implementation—including new delivery mechanisms to support direct access to finance, including through mandatory reporting mechanisms;
- Commits to enhanced social inclusivity and real, full, and effective representation according to the Principles of Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) in all processes and activities related to climate change, and call for financial support for vulnerable groups, including children, youth, women, indigenous peoples, marginalized communities, and persons with disabilities in the form of scholarships, grants, and opportunities to be heard in national and international decision-making processes related to climate change;
- Recognizes the inherent conflict of interest that is introduced when private actors with vested and polluting interests are allowed to participate in policy making processes, and commit to adopting a definition of ‘conflict of interest’, and a rigorous conflict of interest framework that draws on previous precedents and prevents entities with private interests from unduly influencing or undermining national and international climate policy, and strengthen the procedures for admission of observers within the UNFCCC and its instruments.
IX. COLLABORATION
- Requests the Chair of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation to convene at its 58th session during COP27, a dialogue on the relationship between social inclusivity and real, full, and effective representation according to the Principles of Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) and climate change;
- Invites Parties and non-Party stakeholders to submit inputs via the submission portal by 31 March 2022 to inform the dialogues referred to in paragraph 41 above concerning the loss and damage finance facility and the loss and damage finance roadmap;
- Invites Parties and non-Party stakeholders to submit inputs via the submission portal by 31 August 2022 to inform the dialogues referred to in paragraph 48 above concerning social inclusivity;
- Requests the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice to address the issues of conflicts of interest through workshops and expert meetings, working with constituted bodies under the Convention, with a view to providing recommendations for consideration and adoption by the Conference of the Parties at its twenty-eighth session;
- Invites Parties and non-Party stakeholders to submit inputs via the submission portal by 31 March 2022 to inform the work of the SBSTA referred to in paragraphs 49 above concerning conflicts of interest;
- Decides to launch a comprehensive two-year programme (2022 - 2023), to be implemented jointly by the SBSTA and SBI, conducted by the Adaptation Committee, and present the approaches to reviewing the progress made in achieving the Global Goal on Adaptation that are flexible and adaptive, and urges that the Adaptation Committee should present their recommendations for parties to consider for a COP decision, based on the submissions, inputs, and technical papers, by COP27;
- Requests the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice and the Subsidiary Body for Implementation to jointly address issues related to biodiversity and climate change, including oceans, through workshops and expert meetings, working with constituted bodies under the Convention, with a view to providing recommendations for consideration and adoption by the Conference of the Parties at its twenty-eighth session, and taking into consideration, inter alia: a. The positive and negative impacts of climate change mitigation and adaptation measures on natural ecosystems. b. The importance of ecosystem integrity for the long-term stability and resilience of natural carbon sinks and reservoirs; and c. Mitigation and adaptation measures that would enhance ecosystem integrity.
- Welcomes the continuation of the Marrakech Partnership for Global Climate Action, emphasising the need to enhance efforts to track and trace voluntary actions and the implementation of pledges by non-Party stakeholders to achieve decarbonize, with the aim of supporting emphasis on emissions reductions instead of carbon offsetting, considering an equitable approach to residual emissions, and to support the achievement of ‘real zero’.
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