Last week at COP21 in Paris, governments of the world united in action on climate change by adopting the Paris Agreement, the first universal, legally binding climate deal. This agreement will spur a transformation of global growth and development and open the door to a low-carbon, stable, sustainable future.
Today, major cities – including over 30 C40 cities – regions, companies and investors from around the globe representing 150 million people and $11 trillion, pledged to help implement the Paris Agreement and accelerate the transformative changes needed to meet the climate change challenge. Today’s announcement follows the unanimous vote by the C40 Steering Committee to endorse the Paris Pledge on behalf of C40 at their meeting of December 3rd 2015.
L’Appel de Paris, or the Paris Pledge for Action, is a call to action in support of the Paris Agreement, which brings together a multitude of voices on an unprecedented scale within a single, collective statement:
“We welcome the adoption of a new, universal climate agreement at COP21 in Paris, which is a critical step on the path to solving climate change. We pledge our support to ensuring that the level of ambition set by the agreement is met or exceeded.”
This landmark pledge is a clear signal that the message sent by the negotiations has been received loud and clear and that cities as well as regions, business, investors and other non-state actors are now ready and willing to stand shoulder to shoulder, alongside governments, to implement the terms of the agreement. This is an opportunity to limit global temperature rise to less than 2 degrees and raise ambition before the agreement takes effect in 2020; the next 5 years are critical for determining whether the world can move to a climate-safe development path.
L’Appel de Paris has already been signed over 400 businesses, 120 investors, 150 cities and regions representing 150 million people and $11 trillion. 34 C40 cities have currently signed the Pledge, including the C40 Steering Committee cities.
The pledge is an initiative of the COP21 French Presidency, and is open to more signatories, and aims to spread around the world. All non-state actors are invited to join this call to action in support of the Paris Agreement.
The C40 cities that have signed the pledge so far are:
| Addis Ababa | London* |
| Amman* | Los Angeles* |
| Athens | Madrid |
| Barcelona | Mexico City |
| Basel | Milan* |
| Buenos Aires* | New York |
| Cape Town | Portland |
| Caracas | Quezon City |
| Changwon | Rio de Janeiro |
| Copenhagen | Rotterdam |
| Curitiba | San Francisco |
| Heidelberg | Seoul* |
| Hong Kong* | Stockholm |
| Houston* | Sydney |
| Jakarta* | Tokyo* |
| Johannesburg* | Vancouver |
| Karachi Metropolitan Corporation | Yokohama |
*Steering committee members
Read the Pledge here.