Search Results for: Paris Agreement

Essential details on the Secretary Kerry’s announcement today on the finance the US is scaling up towards climate adaptation and quotes in response to this announcement from relevant experts and advocates.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) released its annual report on the rate of global progress in cutting greenhouse gas emissions at 3:30AM ET on Friday, November 6. So far, 156 countries have submitted climate action plans (also known as Intended Nationally Determined Contributions, or INDCs), covering almost 87 percent of global emissions. The UNEP Emissions Gap report is expected to indicate that the INDCs, combined with current global policies already in place, would result in substantial reductions of greenhouse gas emissions, moving the direction of the global economy significantly closer to the cost-optimal pathway for holding warming under 2˚C.

One of the big questions facing the negotiations is whether the agreement arrived at in 2015 should direct climate action for decades to come, and if so, how. This question has become starkly relevant as it is now clear that the recently submitted Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) will only direct global action for 10 years, and will only push global action part of the way towards the 2˚C pathway.

The term “climate finance” refers to public and private mechanisms established to help fund countries in their efforts to reduce emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change. Read on for details of the Green Climate Fund–the current focus of this work–and other finance initiatives.