The unanimously approved Paris Agreement strives to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius, with the intent to pursue a 1.5-degree target. Through this Agreement, local and subnational governments are recognised as essential actors in fast tracking transformative action in the urban world. ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability welcomes the landmark commitments of 185 nations to curb the trajectory of current and future global greenhouse gas emissions. While these agreed national contributions are a strong basis for action, they do not yet keep global warming below the 2-degree Celsius threshold. National governments must therefore resolve to achieve stronger climate commitments.

The Paris Agreement answers ICLEI’s call for nations to review, every five years, their commitments to keep greenhouse gas emissions trajectories well below 2 degrees Celsius. This process of accountability will safeguard, in particular, the most vulnerable populations and small island nations that suffer from the impacts of climate change they have not caused. ICLEI supports that least developed and developing countries must be entitled to peak their emissions within the context of shared but differentiated responsibility.

Through this Agreement, nations have yet to provide an ambitious response to end a fossil-dependent era, despite the unstoppable transformation into an urban development model based on 100 percent renewables. ICLEI expects that nations urgently signal to industry and the private sector that the fossil fuel-dependent era is ending. As the focal point of the Local Governments and Municipal Authorities (LGMA) Constituency to the UNFCCC for 25 years and the facilitator of the Local Government Climate Roadmap since 2007, ICLEI has successfully advanced the recognition of local and subnational action and asks for further support for their contributions to implement the Agreement.

Read ICLEI’s full statement on the Paris outcomes here.