Introduction: The Proliferation of Climate Actions by Non-State Actors

Abstract

The Paris Agreement presents a historical landmark in the global response to climate change and sets out the objective of limiting global warming to well below 2 °C and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels. However, the national climate change efforts to which Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) have committed themselves in the form of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) are largely insufficient, and only cover one third of the greenhouse gas emissions reductions necessary to reach this temperature goal (UNEP 2017). There is still a significant gap between 2030 emission levels and a least-cost 2 °C pathway amounting to 11 GtCO2e or even as much as 13.5 GtCO2e, taking only unconditional NDCs into account (UNEP 2017). Global greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, albeit at a slower rate, and even though the Parties must increase the goals of their NDCs over time, it is unlikely that the emissions reductions thus achieved will be sufficient (UNEP 2017).