Catalyzing Climate Action for Resilient Development

The “groundswell” of climate actions is sometimes seen to be driven by the global North. While research shows that Northern actors tend to initiate more “bottom up” actions than Southern actors, it also shows that many cities, companies, national governments, and other actors in the South are taking advantage of these strategies to build low carbon, climate-resilient development. These pioneers demonstrate the extraordinary potential of these kinds of actions to meet immediate development needs ranging from economic inclusion, to health, agriculture, and energy access. This workshop seeks to expand the scale and ambition of the groundswell of climate actions in the global South as a way to make sure that this emerging feature of the climate regime directly addresses the needs and priorities of developing countries.

The workshop addresses the much heard critique that up until now the discussion on nonstate climate action is very “Northern driven.” Given the fact that most nonstate climate actions are Northern-led, although needs are greatest in developing countries, the event addresses the question how nonstate (and subnational) climate action could be catalyzed in developing countries. Moreover, the aim is to explore how governments, UNFCCC secretariat, and other organizations could ensure more effective nonstate action in developing countries, and possibly building on existing initiatives, such as the above mentioned NAZCA platform.