Climate Vulnerable Forum Virtual Summit

22 November 2018

The Virtual Climate Summit organized by the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) snowballs the process for ramping up climate action, but countries still need to significantly step up and raise ambition by 2020 to keep global warming below 1.5C degrees.

 
Thursday 22 November: Countries of the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) broke new grounds

today by successfully organizing the first gathering of Heads of States and governments completely online at www.vitualclimatesummit.org, setting a precedent for a future of low emissions international fora. The zero-carbon summit, which came as a response to the scientific report by the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released last September, aimed at providing a platform for all leaders to commit to raising climate ambition by 2020 to keep warming below 1.5C degrees as agreed in 2015 in Paris and to safeguard vulnerable communities worldwide from runaway climate change.

 

Pre-recorded video statements, panels and films were screened over 24 hours engaging various audiences over social media. More than 50 countries participated including Costa Rica, Germany, France, Fiji, Philippines, Mexico, Norway, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Niger, Palau, Finland, Cambodia, Switzerland, Rwanda, Grenada, Lebanon,  Kiribati, Ireland, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sweden, Santa Lucia, Barbados, Haïti, Mongolia and others.

The Summit was an important show of leadership by the Marshall Islands and other countries most vulnerable to climate change, which optimized scarce resources to organize the Summit and build a coalition of frontrunners who will act as the driving force for a decision on enhancement at the upcoming UN negotiations (COP24) in Katowice and the UN Secretary General (UNSG) Summit in September 2019.

The Summit Host, President of the Marshall Islands and Chair of the CVF Dr. Hilda Heine announced new and ambitious climate targets becoming one of the first along with Fiji to respond to the Paris Commitments and setting an example for other countries to follow to secure survival and protection of vulnerable communities worldwide. The official outcome of the Summit, particularly the “Jumemmej Declaration” (Marshallese for vigilance against threats) will feed into the agreed mechanism to promote enhanced action by all nations party to the Paris Agreement dubbed the “Talanoa Dialogue” and sends a powerful call to arms to all leaders and non-state actors to enhance ambition by 2020 while emphasizing the role of the UNSG Summit in 2019. The Declaration also announces that all CVF countries will enhance their own climate contributions by 2020.

CVF countries attempted to lead by example to emphasize that the transition to clean renewable energy and decarbonized economies that will keep warming below 1.5C is feasible and economically productive.

Although the Summit kicked off a snowball for enhanced commitments, which civil society will keep pushing to build up to a significant size during the climate talks in Katowice through to the UNSG Summit in 2019, many countries missed the intended purpose of the online meeting, either by not participating in the Summit or by failing to present new strong and ambitious commitments. As many speakers in the Summit expressed, enhanced commitments are the only way to safeguard vulnerable and other communities from dangerous climate impacts that are threatening their survival and peace and security worldwide.

The IPCC’s special report was clear. To keep the world safe from climate disasters, countries should take unprecedented actions to cut carbon emissions and a complete phase-out of coal by all members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development by 2030.

The Summit saw the participation of a number of civil society and organizational leaders including the UN, World Bank, the Global Environment Facility, the Elders, Oxfam, Mission 2020, SEforAll, Greenpeace, the World Wide Fund for Nature, the World Resources Institute, CARE and others.

 

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