Action Agenda
Sustainable Urban Resilience for the Next Generation (SURGe) Initiative
At COP27 in Sharm el Sheikh, the COP Presidency has launched the SURGe Initiative to enhance and accelerate local and urban climate action through multi-level governance, engagement, and delivery through five integrated tracks, contributing to achieving the Paris Climate Goals and Sustainable Development Goals.
#Stocktake4ClimateEmergency
Under the banner of #Stocktake4ClimateEmergency, hundreds of cities, towns and regions are invited to host events throughout 2023 that provide an official contribution to the Paris Agreement’s Global Stocktake — essentially turning their city halls and regional parliaments into mini-COP venues.
Regional Climate Weeks
Regional Climate Weeks bring diverse stakeholders in the public and private sectors together around a common goal of addressing climate change. These conferences build momentum ahead of the annual COP and provide space for a grassroots exchange of knowledge across the following regions: Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East and Northern Africa.
Though each Regional Climate Week is unique, all are guided by thematic tracks and principles. The LGMA leads Track 2: Cities, Urban and Rural Settlements, Infrastructure and Transport, providing a platform to share best practices on subnational-level climate implementation.
Talanoa Dialogues
In a year-round dialogue from 2017’s COP24 through 2018’s COP25 in Katowice, nations assessed the progress of their national climate plans. This one-time UNFCCC initiative, branded as the Talanoa Dialogues, included input from multiple stakeholders including local governments, thanks to the support of the LGMA.
Marrakech Partnership for Global Climate Action
The Marrakech Partnership for Global Climate Action, led by the High-Level Champions, supports implementation of the Paris Agreement by enabling collaboration between national governments and non-State actors. The Marrakech Partnership includes several initiatives, including those below.
Breakthrough and Adaptation Agenda
The Breakthrough and Adaptation Agendas, established at COP26 and 27 respectively, provide frameworks for countries, businesses and civil society to strengthen their mitigation and adaptation actions to achieve 2030 goals. The Breakthrough Agenda is an unprecedented international clean technology plan to help keep 1.5°C, focusing on five key sectors: power, road transport, steel, hydrogen and agriculture sectors. The Sharm-El-Sheikh Adaptation Agenda portrays a total of 30 global adaptation outcome targets that will increase the resilience of four billion people and accelerate transformation across five impact systems.
Race to Zero and Race to Resilience
Race to Zero rallies leadership and support for decarbonization from over 11,000 businesses, cities, investors and other non-State actors. Race to Resilience, the adaptation-focused sibling campaign to Race to Zero, builds adaptive capacity and strengthens the resilience of vulnerable rural, urban and coastal communities in 139 countries. These collective commitments demonstrate that non-State actors are united in creating an inclusive, resilient, decarbonized economy and encourage national governments to strengthen their contributions to the achievement of Paris Agreement goals.
As of September 2022, 1,136 cities and 52 states and regions have joined the Race to Zero alliance and committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.
Climate Action Pathways
The Climate Action Pathways set out sectoral visions for achieving a 1.5° C resilient world in 2050, with overarching transformational milestones, and key impacts that need to be achieved to realize them. The seven thematic areas are energy, human settlements, industry, land use, oceans and coastal zones, transport and water. The Pathways are living documents that help Party and non-Party stakeholders identify actions needed by 2021, 2025, 2030 and 2040 as steps to get to the 2050 vision.
