Photo © Abbie Trayler-Smith / Panos Pictures / Department for International Development

Five Years on from the Paris Agreement, How Can Countries Give A Boost To Their Climate Action Plans?

December 12, 2020 is the five year anniversary of the Paris Climate Agreement. On that day a number of governments, civil society organizations, and other world leaders will convene virtually for a Climate Ambition Summit hosted by the United Nations, the United Kingdom, and France, in partnership with Chile and Italy. 

The idea behind the summit is to encourage governments around the world to submit what are known as enhanced Nationally Determined Contributions, or NDCs. These NDCs are each countries’ individual plans to take on climate change within their own national contexts. NDCs are the core of the Paris Agreement and when it was signed in 2015 there was an explicit expectation among the parties that in 5 years each country would re-sumbit revised NDCs that were of increased ambition — that is, the NDCs that countries were to announce in 2020 would do more and be farther reaching than the NDCs of 2015. 

Ahead of this summit, the podcast partnered with the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) for a live taping that explored ways countries can take on climate change while also improving human health and spurring economic development. We use Chile as a starting off point for a broader conversation about ways countries can design policies to take on climate change that have knock-on benefits for health and the economy. 

Panelists:

Marcelo Mena Carrasco, Director, Center for Climate Action, Catholic University of Valparaiso, and the former Environment Minister of Chile 

Dr. Laura Gallardo Klenner, a Professor at the Center for Climate and Resilience Research at the University of Chile

Graham Watkins, Chief of the Climate Change Division, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)

Chris Malley, Senior Research Fellow, Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI)

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