Climate change is adversely impacting livelihoods and ecosystems undermining planned development programmes across sectors (e.g. agriculture, industry, energy, water, etc.). “Climate-resilient pathways are development trajectories that combine adaptation and mitigation to realize the goal of sustainable development” (IPCC 2018) .
Unprecedented mitigation effort are required, on average 7.6 percent of global emissions each year before 2030 , but this must be backed-up with the improvement of national/sub national adaptation strategies to anticipate and cope those impacts that cannot be avoided in scenarios beyond midcentury net zero goals . For the 196 Parties that resolved under the Paris Agreement to transform their development trajectories to help meet 1.5 to 2°C global temperature warming targets, the design and implementation of NDCs are at the heart of whether this target is achievable.
To ensure NDCs are not one-off, short-term responses, Article 4 of the Paris Agreement invited Parties to communicate mid-century long-term low GHG emission development strategies, also known as Long-Term Strategies or LTSs. In addition to the 29 LTS officially submitted (Costa Rica and Mexico the only 2 in LAC), long-term vision setting has also materializing through countries, cities and corporations making commitments that target Net Zero emissions (or Carbon Neutrality by mid-century) (e.g., Argentina, Barbados, Brazil, Chile, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Panama and Uruguay are proposing Net Zero or Carbon Neutrality targets in NDCs or recent pledges).
As momentum grows in the LAC region now with more than 11 countries in LAC already submitted its second NDC, one logical next step is to define how NDCs will fit into long-term action strategies.
This LAC Climate Week session will offer a space to focus on how adaptation strategies are being backed up by Long Term Climate Strategies (LTS ) to jointly build resilience. This will aim to complement day 1 discussions around National Adaptation Plans. This session is particularly developed by UNDP in close coordination with Chile as part of COP 25 presidency. UK and Chile are leading efforts towards the “Race to Recilience ” campaign for a healthy, resilient zero carbon recovery. Already 120 countries joined the Climate Ambition Alliance , creating the largest ever alliance committed to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050 at the latest.
