Blog Posts: paris agreement

75 years ago, the United Nations was founded on the belief that countries must work together to address global issues. As the world faces climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic, some national governments are living up to this belief more than others — but crucial actors may be able to turn the tide.

As countries consider how to step up climate ambition while dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, Chile leads by example with a new national climate commitment, or NDC.

2020 was supposed to be a decisive year for climate action. Countries were expected to put forward new, more ambitious climate plans (NDCs) in accordance with the Paris Agreement on climate change, then COVID-19 happened.

Since the landmark Paris Agreement on climate change, adopted in 2015 and signed by 175 countries on Earth Day the following year, global momentum to tackle the climate emergency has been building. But progress hasn't been nearly fast enough.

The Trump Administration's continued rollback of environmental regulations threatens to undermine the legacy of Earth Day and to compound health and economic damage from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Japan's newly announced climate plan is no stronger than the one it submitted five years ago. It fails to grasp the seriousness of climate impacts for Japan or the significant economic opportunities available by pursuing a low-carbon future.

Marshall Islands, Suriname, Norway and Moldova are the first countries to submit an enhanced "nationally determined contribution," or NDC. The Paris Agreement on climate change calls on countries to submit stronger NDCs every five years, beginning in 2020.

In this critical year for climate action, more than 800 companies have committed to set science-based targets to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions in line with the Paris Agreement. This is a hopeful sign, but not enough. Financial institutions are the vital link to enable the system-wide change we need.

The blunt truth about COP25, the international climate summit in Madrid, is that countries failed to make the progress needed toward meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement.

Badly designed climate action can leave people behind. Here are five ways governments can create fair policies and ensure climate justice.