Blog Posts: long-term strategies

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for "bold action and much greater ambition" in fighting climate change. Latin American and Caribbean nations can heed the call by strengthening their national climate plans by 2020 and setting net-zero emissions targets for 2050.

In too many countries, decision-making on climate change rests solely in the hands of a limited set of policymakers and planners. This is a lost opportunity to build awareness, political commitment and accountability for the kind of transformational change needed to get the world on a more sustainable path.

Long-term strategies provide a way for countries to envision strong and sustainable growth—exactly the goal of the G20.

The European Council will vote later this month on a proposal to go carbon neutral by 2050. The ramifications of the EU's decision will extend far beyond its borders.

Governments are beginning to take up the call for a "just transition" to a clean energy economy, with advancements seen in Canada, Spain, Germany, Costa Rica and more. One way they can do so: Integrate the "just transition" into their long-term strategies for climate action.

As many are settling into accepting extreme weather events and chronic stresses as the new normal, it has become clear that events we expected to occur in the ‘far future’ have arrived and are bound to intensify.

Under the Paris Agreement, countries' long-term climate strategies are meant to plan into the middle of the century. But we have limited ability to foresee future technology, business, lifestyle and political developments. How can policymakers deal with this uncertainty?

On the sidelines of COP24, a group of high-level representatives from fourteen G20 countries gathered in Katowice to discuss their vision for ambitious action to develop and implement long-term climate strategies.

World's third-largest emitter aims to achieve a climate-neutral economy by 2050.

Scientists say that global emissions must reach net-zero by mid-century to avoid the worst climate disasters. While G20 countries produce 75 percent of world's emissions, only a small handful have a plan for reducing them between now and 2050.