An Emergency Pact for International Climate Governance

An Emergency Pact for International Climate Governance

Sina Heckenberger

Environment and Human Rights Researcher

Global Human Rights Defence

On 7th September, the Climate Vulnerable Forum, an alliance of nations that are most vulnerable to climate change, issued a manifesto calling on the international community to seize the opportunity of the upcoming COP26 to take more urgent climate action.

The manifesto is prompted by the failure of developed nations to take the necessary national measures aimed at limiting temperatures to 1.5 degrees celsius above pre-industrial levels, as world leaders have pledged in the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015. Thus, “leaving vulnerable nations at the brink of survival and people all over the planet deep in harms’ way”. The recent IPCC report underscored how close we are to overstep the target of 1.5 degrees warming and the detrimental effects this has for the planet and people. 

In this manifesto, the most climate threatened nations call on the international community for the creation of a climate emergency pact. This pact is targeted at “accelerating adaptation and keeping the target of 1.5 degrees warming within reach”.

Firstly, the Pact includes a “Delivery Plan” to step up funds for climate mitigation and adaptation in developing nations. The implementation of these funds ought to be supervised by the IMF. Secondly, it calls for “Annual Ambition Raising Platforms”, to be hosted at every forthcoming COP. On top of Nationally Determined Contributions, the highest emitting nations are pushed to renew their ambitions on adaptation and mitigation annually, as opposed to the currently employed 5-year rule.

Both measures are intended to achieve more urgent climate action and to offset the inequity between the highest emitting countries and the countries that are most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. 

Bibliography:


Climate Vulnerables’ Manifesto for the COP26 https://thecvf.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/CVF-Manifesto-COP26-final-FINAL.pdf