Global cooperation for climate action: Southern engagement with climate negotiations and commitments 2020–2023

 

Climate change is by far the greatest crisis the planet has faced in the modern age. Despite the Paris Agreement’s commitments to climate action and the Sustainable Development Goals, the world is behind on reducing both carbon emissions and poverty. Parties are now revising national commitments to limit average global warming to well below 2°C, ahead of the first global stocktaking in 2023 under the Paris Agreement. However, a significant number of countries in the Global South are struggling to meet those commitments, especially given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and continuing development challenges.

This project seeks to increase the knowledge and capacities of six developing countries (four in Africa and two in Latin America and the Caribbean) to enhance climate action in a way that will be reflected at the 2023 global stocktaking. It will support tailored-to-context, participatory research syntheses of knowledge and capacities for each of the six countries; train 84 young leaders from those countries on implementing and reporting progress of national climate action; and consolidate the capacities of 24 young specialist leaders, at least 60% of whom are women, to lead, advise, and communicate in the transition to a low carbon economy. Finally, it will secure the participation and engagement of researchers and practitioners from the Global South, particularly women leaders, in international climate forums, including the UNFCCC Conference of Parties (COPs) 26 to 28.