A2 – Accelerating ambitious climate action: Bridging climate emergency and climate neutrality

A2 - Accelerating ambitious climate action: Bridging climate emergency and climate neutrality

The outcome of the COP26, “the Glasgow Climate Pact”, failed to capture the “emergency mode” but recognizes the need for “multilevel and cooperative action” to accelerate the implementation of the Paris Agreement towards a low-carbon future stressing the urgency to reach net zero by 2050 and calling for more ambitious action plans by 2022 (UN Climate action, 2021 and Arikan, 2021)
Local and regional governments acknowledged the climate emergency and expressed concern on the climate impacts if the global efforts do not limit the temperature to 1.5°C. Currently over 2000 jurisdictions and local governments have declared a climate emergency and 1053 joined the Cities Race to Zero campaign in an effort to accelerate climate action and raise ambition to stay on track with the Paris Agreement goal, recognizing the global climate emergency. In addition, 377 cities have applied to join the EU Mission to create 100 Climate-neutral cities by 2030, leading the way and raising the ambition beyond the overall commitment to become the first climate neutral continent by 2050 as a de-facto response to the climate emergency.

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