SDG Action
Subscribe

SDG Action › SDG Action publications › Climate Action edition 2023: Taking stock

Climate Action edition 2023: Taking stock

COP28 will be responding to the first Global Stocktake – a comprehensive assessment of our progress towards the goals of the Paris Agreement. That progress is too slow and, as our prospects of keeping within the 1.5°C target slip away, the emphasis shifts from mitigation to adaptation. With it, the focus moves to the Global South, which will suffer the worst impacts and lacks the resources to adapt. Climate justice and ‘loss and damage’ will take center stage.

Publication

  1. Time to face the facts

    COP28 is a pivotal moment for the Paris Agreement. The first global stocktake presents a comprehensive view of progress towards the goals of the agreement. The synthesis report released in September makes it clear we are falling well short. The science is clear and, collectively, we have the knowledge and resources to deliver. Now it is time for political leaders to unite behind a common plan to address the climate crisis

    Phoebe Koundouri

    SDGs: 2 7 9 10 11 12 13 15 17

  2. Supporting climate action in LDCs

    Despite their limited means, many of the world’s poorest countries are leading the way in cutting emissions and taking bold action on adaptation. The rest of the world must step up support for LDCs – and follow their example

    Cassie Flynn

    SDGs: 9 10 13 17

Cross-cutting themes

  1. Can the Paris Agreement deliver climate justice?

    Eight years on, the Paris Agreement’s ambition to achieve climate justice appears woefully off course. Can the Sustainable Development Goals, with their emphasis on empowering the most vulnerable communities, help steer the COP process toward redressing the inequity of climate change?

    Yamide Dagnet

    SDGs: 5 10 13 15 17

  3. The false dilemma between economy and planet

    There is a growing chorus calling for delays to net-zero initiatives, blaming climate action for the current cost of living crisis. In reality, green investment can offer a path out of the economic troubles that have been building since the start of the century

    Phoebe Koundouri, Dogan Keles, Konstantinos Dellis, Conrad Landis

    SDGs: 7 8 9 13 14 15

  5. Bridging the SDG funding gap in cities

    The global development finance system is failing cities, yet it is in urban centers where much of the work on climate action and sustainable development must happen. Bold, urgent, and practical solutions – including new, city-focused funds or institutions, MDB reform, and other global, national, and local reforms – could expand and improve urban SDG finance

    Eugénie L. Birch, Mauricio Rodas, Eamon Thomas Drumm

    SDGs: 9 11 13 17

  6. Clear regulation for sustainable finance

    Scratch beneath the surface, and so-called green investments often reveal to be contributing to environmentally harmful activities. With voluntary pledges shown wanting, governments and regulators must urgently mandate for better transparency and accountability in sustainable investing

    Helena Viñes Fiestas

    SDGs: 7 9 13 15 16 17

  7. Wrestling with hypernumbers

    The promise of trillion-dollar sustainable finance initiatives rests on a triple fallacy: that we can make sense of them, that they are a measure of money that is available to finance or support climate-related causes, and that someone has structured and organized control over these amounts. It’s time to accept their extremely limited utility and move on

    Jérôme Tagger

    SDGs: 7 12 13 17

Data for climate action

  2. Guiding climate action through Earth observation

    With their unwavering gaze from above, satellites are an increasingly powerful tool to identify and monitor anthropogenic emissions, right down to pinpointing individual sites. Using this data to inform policy and direct climate action everywhere must be an urgent global priority

    Simonetta Cheli

    SDGs: 9 13 17

  3. Surviving weather in a 1.5°C world

    As temperatures creep higher, extreme weather events are becoming the new normal. What should we expect as we approach 1.5°C, and how can governments and wider society prepare?

    Leon Hermanson

    SDGs: 13 17

  4. Whose bioeconomy, whose knowledge, and whose profit?

    The nascent concept of “bioeconomy” offers a new sustainable paradigm where economic growth supports nature rather than plunders it. Can bioeconomies genuinely transform regions like the Amazon, plagued by decades of resource extraction and exploitation, in the face of powerful, global, corporate interests?

    Simone Athayde, Luciana Villa Nova Silva

    SDGs: 1 3 5 10 13 16 17

Climate neutral & resilient energy

  2. Every watt we save brings us closer to net zero

    Improvements in energy efficiency are a critical component in our quest to reach net zero by 2050. While rapid technological advances suggest the transformation is possible, we must also direct efforts to overcome the many challenges – from financial to behavioral – that remain

    Emi Minghui Gui, Gill Armstrong

    SDGs: 7 9 12 13

  4. Achieving net zero through innovation

    Dimeta is a joint venture between SHV Energy and UGI International
    to advance the production and use of renewable and recycled carbon
    dimethyl-ether (DME), a low-carbon sustainable liquid gas, to accelerate the LPG industry’s transition to net zero

    Frankie Ugboma

    SDGs: 7 9 10 13

Climate adaptation & sustainable land use

  2. Africa’s call for action on adaptation at COP28

    African nations have thrown down a united challenge to the world: developed countries must urgently partner with the continent to support a rapid increase in climate adaptation and sustainable development. After too many climate summits that have achieved agreement but fallen short on implementation, Africa needs COP28 to deliver on both

    Olufunso Somorin, Linda Ogallo, Debisi Araba, Tedd Moya

    SDGs: 2 6 13 15 17

All publications