The joint Declaration for Ambition, signed by the likes of Canada, France, Germany and the Marshal Islands, also calls for countries boost to set long-term strategies to reach net-zero emissions.
Experts claim that a net-zero target is needed to keep the world in line with the Paris Agreement’s goal of a global temperature limited to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.
The Declaration also highlights the importance of the Talanoa Dialogue, the process designed to help countries implement and enhance their Nationally Determined Contributions by 2020.
“We commit to exploring the possibilities for stepping up our own ambition, in light of the forthcoming IPCC Special Report on 1.5C, and in this context emphasize the importance of the Talanoa Dialogue at COP24,” the Declaration reads.
‘Biggest opportunity’
The document has been issued in the build up to the UN Climate Summit in 2019, which is described as the “biggest political opportunity to raise global ambition by 2020 in order to stay within the temperature limits of the Paris Agreement”.
Some of the signatories, such as Sweden and New Zealand, have already taken steps to establishing net-zero emissions targets, while earlier this week, EU negotiators struck a deal which agreed to aim for a net-zero carbon economy “as early as possible”.
In the UK, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) is set to be instructed to provide formal advice to the Government on how the UK’s emissions targets should be adjusted to align with its commitments under the Paris Agreement.
Yesterday (22 June), Ed Miliband told edie that the UK Government should look to build momentum towards the next UN climate summit by enshrining a new net-zero emissions target for 2050.
George Ogleby