The Future of Global Climate Action in the UNFCCC

The UNFCCC has a history of cultivating institutions that encourage and recognize climate action by cities, businesses, states and regions, investors, and other “non-Party” actors. It has also fostered cooperative initiatives that engage sub- and non-state actors alongside national governments. At COP25, Parties extended the mandate of the central mode of engagement for non-Party stakeholders, the Global Climate Action (GCA) “space,” and tasked the High-level Champions to explore how such arrangements can be improved. As UN Climate transitions into an implementation-oriented phase after 2020, the design and mandate of the GCA must be adapted to best deliver action and enhance ambition.

But, as we enter the implementation phase of the Paris Agreement, the world has simultaneously entered a health and economic crisis. The UNFCCC process must rise to this new challenge as part of a broader strengthening of multilateralism around “building back better.” Global climate action–mobilizing all actors to work toward clean, healthy, resilient economies and societies–is a key ingredient of this larger transformation.

Participants think through the design and integration of GCA in the era of climate implementation. In addition to a discussion paper on the future of Global Climate Action developed by Galvanizing the Groundswell of Climate Actions over the course of several consultations with parties and non-Parties, workshop conversation centers around some of the following questions:

• What are critical “value-adds” of GCA after 2020 for climate action coalitions, parties, and the UNFCCC?
• How does GCA function after 2020 and how can it help with the transition to an implementation phase in the UNFCCC?
• How does the community gathered here work to deliver the vision of GCA? Who are the key actors and what levers must be engaged beyond this community?

The workshop is hosted by Galvanizing the Groundswell of Climate Actions with the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Stanley Center for Peace and Security, WWF, and the Oxford University Blavatnik School of Government.