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Climate Action
Executive summary
This report was prepared by United Nations Human Settlement Programme (UN-Habitat) and the UNESCO Chair on Urban Resilience at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU.Resilience). It offers a global analysis of the urban content of 193 Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) submitted to the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) before the 19th of June 2022.
Urban Climate Action: The Urban Content of the NDCs - Global Review 2022
This report was prepared by United Nations Human Settlement Programme (UN-Habitat) and the UNESCO Chair on Urban Resilience at the University of Southern Denmark. It offers a global analysis of the urban content of 193 Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) submitted to the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) before the 19th of June 2022. For this report more than 200 indicators were used to analyse external data (e.g. Human Development Index and income categorisation) and data within the NDCs including climate mitigation and adaptation challenges and responses as well as specific sectors.
Urban content of NDCs at the global level
For this review 193 NDCs were analysed (see Annex 2) including the latest version of all updated NDCs submitted before 19th June 2022 which are publicly available in the UNFCCC online depository.
Introduction
This report was prepared by United Nations Human Settlement Programme (UN-Habitat) and the UNESCO Chair on Urban Resilience at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU.Resilience). It offers a global analysis of the urban content of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) submitted to the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) before the 19th of June 2022.
Approach and methodology
This analysis is based on the revision of all the latest NDCs submitted to the Secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) before 19th June 2022. In accordance with Article 4 paragraph 12 of the Paris Agreement NDCs communicated by Parties shall be recorded in a public online registry maintained by the Secretariat.
Foreword
Our planet has already warmed by around 1.2 degrees. The battle to reach net zero by mid-century to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change will be won or lost this decade. In 2022 we have already seen devastating effects of climate change ranging from oppressive heat waves across Europe and America to floods in South Africa and Pakistan and severe drought in Brazil and China.
Towards a Hydrogen Economy in the UNECE Region
The publication proposes a method for hydrogen classification needed to jumpstart production and international trade in hydrogen. It also presents several project ideas in selected UNECE member States that would accelerate deployment of hydrogen.
State of the Global Climate 2023
The publication provides a summary on the state of the climate indicators in 2023 with sections on key climate indicators extreme events and impacts. The indicators include global temperatures greenhouse gas concentration ocean heat content sea level rise ocean acidification Arctic and Antarctic Sea ice Greenland ice sheet and glaciers and snow cover precipitation and stratospheric ozone with an analysis of major drivers of inter-annual climate variability during the year including the El Niño Southern Oscillation and other ocean and atmospheric indices. The highlighted extreme events include those related to tropical cyclones and windstorms flooding drought and extreme heat and cold events. The publication also provides most recent finding on climate related risks and impacts including on food security and population displacement.
The State of Climate Finance
In 2021/20221 global climate flows reached almost USD 1.3 trillion nearly doubling compared to 2019/2020 levels. This increase was primarily driven by a significant acceleration in mitigation finance up by USD 439 billion from 2019/2020. The remainder of the observed growth in 2021/2022 stems from methodological improvements to and additional data sources used in the Global Landscape of Climate Finance. Despite this growing momentum in climate finance tracked flows represent only approximately 1% of global GDP.
Global climate indicators
The global climate indicators provide an overview of changes in the climate system. The set of interlinked physical indicators presented here connect the changing composition of the atmosphere with changes in energy in the climate system and the response of land ocean and ice.
Foreword
The World Meteorological Organization State of the Global Climate report confirms that the year 2023 broke every single climate indicator.
Climate Monitoring and Renewable Energy
Renewable energy generation primarily driven by the dynamic forces of solar radiation wind and the water cycle has surged to the forefront of climate action for its potential to achieve decarbonization targets. Worldwide a substantial energy transition is already underway. In 2023 renewable capacity additions increased by almost 50% from 2022 for a total of 510 gigawatts (GW). Such growth marks the highest rate observed in the past two decades and as the International Energy Agency (IEA) indicates demonstrates the potential to achieve the clean energy goal set at COP28 to triple renewable energy capacity globally to reach 11 000 GW by 2030.
Socio-economic impacts
The events described above and many others besides occur in a broader context. Extreme weather and climate events interact with and in some cases trigger or exacerbate situations concerning water and food security population mobility and environmental degradation.