SDG 13: Climate Action
The SDGs were adopted about a month and a half before the Paris agreement was reached so, while climate action was included before the specific targets of the Paris Agreement were agreed upon by the international community, this is why you will find that the climate goals are much more broad and general than what is included in the Paris Agreement. Having said that, the UN recognizes that all global sustainability frameworks are complementary and reinforcing so the ultimate goal of SDG 13 is to achieve the Paris Agreement. So before I dive into SDG 13 let me give you a high level overview of the Paris Agreement.
The Paris Agreement
The Paris Climate Agreement was reached on December 12, 2015 in Paris, France at the 21st Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change. The agreement was later ratified, or formally adopted, by 190 countries, coming into effect on November 4, 2016. 7 countries - Iran, Turkey, Iraq, Eritrea, Libya, South Sudan, and Yemen - have never ratified the agreement.
The Paris Climate agreement has three main goals:
To keep global warming well below 2°C compared with pre industrial levels, with an ambition of limiting this rise to 1.5°C. (For reference: It is estimated that global temperatures have already risen 1.2C.)
To increase the ability to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change and foster climate resilience and low greenhouse gas emissions development, in a manner that does not threaten food production
To make finance flows consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development.
The Agreement is made up of 15 Articles, many of which spell out the infrastructure and mechanisms needed to reach these goals including things like carbon markets, climate finance, technology and innovation, capacity building, education and awareness raising, transparency and compliance.
A key feature of the Paris Agreement is that it took a “bottom up” approach. Unlike previous attempts to negotiate the agreement where global targets were set and divided up amongst countries to achieve, the Paris Agreement allowed countries to submit realistic targets that they had determined on their own. These are referred to as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). The UNFCCC explicitly states that “the Paris Agreement works on a 5-year cycle of increasingly ambitious climate action carried out by countries.” In practice that means that every 5 years countries resubmit their NDCs with the goal of them becoming increasingly more ambitious over time.
The Paris Agreement is a legally binding treaty, but it actually has a mix of legally binding and non-binding provisions. It is an agreement under international law binding on the parties and it requires them to submit NDCs, but it has no legal enforcement mechanisms for countries that do not meet their promised contributions.
Target 13.1
Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters in all countries
What it means
The first target in the climate goal is focused on adaptation, centring people in the climate discussion. It is estimated that if the world breaches the 1.5°C target the lives of more than 3 billion people will be at risk due to intensifying heatwaves, droughts, flooding, wildfires, sea-level rise, and famines. (United Nations)
Adaptation is defined by the UNFCCC as “adjustments in ecological, social or economic systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli and their effects.”
While that sounds quite technical what it essentially means is that climate change is a reality and we need to make changes in processes, practices and structures to mitigate potential damage to people and ecosystems. Adaptation actions can take many forms, they range from things like building flood defences, setting up early warning systems for cyclones, switching to drought-resistant crops, to redesigning communication systems, business operations and government policies. (UNFCCC)
This target is measured by three indicators. The number of deaths, missing persons and directly affected persons attributed to disasters per 100,000 population the number of countries that adopt and implement national disaster risk reduction strategies in line with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 and the proportion of local governments that adopt and implement local disaster risk reduction strategies in line with national disaster risk reduction strategies.
Where we are currently
The number of deaths and missing persons due to disasters per 100,000 population has steadily decreased from 1.64 during the period from 2005-2015 to 0.86 during 2012-2021. However, the number of persons affected by disasters per 100,000 people rose from 1,198 during the period from 2005-2015 to 2,113 during 2012-2021.
The number of countries with national strategies for disaster risk reduction has increased from 55 in 2015 to 126 by the end of 2021. This can be largely attributed to the adoption of the Sendai Framework and Paris Agreement in 2015 that reinforced the need for climate adaptation. Based on this, a total of 118 countries have reported having some level of policy coherence with other global frameworks. (United Nations)
Target 13.2
Integrate climate change measures into national policies, strategies and planning
What it means
This is quite a broad target but it is basically asking - are countries actually implementing climate action? It is measured by two indicators - the number of countries with nationally determined contributions, long-term strategies, national adaptation plans and adaptation communications, as reported to the secretariat of the UNFCCC and total greenhouse gas emissions per year.
Where we are currently
All 193 countries that have ratified the Paris Agreement have submitted an initial nationally determined contribution and 177 countries have submitted an updated NDC in 2020 at the time of the first (Climate Watch) Of those new NDCs 107 were more ambitious in their emissions reductions. Despite this, global emissions continue to rise. Global CO2 emissions for 2022 increased by 1.5% relative to 2021 reaching 36.1 GtCO2, that’s up +7.9% from 2020 and +2.0% from 2019 (Nature). 2020 was an exceptional year because of the pandemic. That year we saw a 5.4% decrease in emissions but as you can see we sprung back up quickly.
To put this in perspective the world has a carbon budget of 250 gigatonnes for a likelihood of 50% to stay under 1.5 °C, so Nature estimates our 2022 emissions consumed 13%–36% of the remaining carbon budget to limit warming to 1.5 °C, suggesting permissible emissions could be depleted within 2–7 years, with estimated exhaustion in 2029.
Target 13.3
Improve education, awareness-raising and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning
What it means
The importance of education for climate action is broadly recognized by the international community. Climate change education helps people understand and address the impacts of the climate crisis, empowering them with the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes needed to act as agents of change. (UNESCO)
Interestingly, this target is measured by the same indicator as the education goal in SDG 12 which is the extent to which (i) global citizenship education and (ii) education for sustainable development are mainstreamed in (a) national education policies; (b) curricula; (c) teacher education; and (d) student assessment, however in practice the measurement is more focused on how the climate issue shows up within these educational structures rather than broad sustainability topics. (United Nations)
Where we are currently
An analysis of 100 national curriculum frameworks reveals that nearly half or 47% do not mention climate change. In 2021, despite 95% of teachers recognizing the importance of teaching about climate change severity, only one-third are capable of effectively explaining its effects in their region. Additionally, 70% of young people can only describe the broad principles of climate change in 2022. (United Nations)
Means of Implementation
Target 13.A : Implement the commitment undertaken by developed-country parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to a goal of mobilizing jointly $100 billion annually by 2020 from all sources to address the needs of developing countries in the context of meaningful mitigation actions and transparency on implementation and fully operationalize the Green Climate Fund through its capitalization as soon as possible
This is an extremely important part of climate action. The Paris agreement recognizes that developing countries do not bare as much historical responsibility for climate change and also are more vulnerable to its impacts, and therefore calls for developed countries to provide financial resources for implementation. Unfortunately, countries have never officially reached the $100B annually goal, however the OECD says that preliminary estimates for 2022 do indicate perhaps that the 100 Billion barrier was crossed for the first time. (Clean Energy Wire) 2021 is our most recent verified number and was only $89.6B (OECD)
Target 13.B : Promote mechanisms for raising capacity for effective climate change-related planning and management in least developed countries and small island developing States, including focusing on women, youth and local and marginalized communities
Keep Learning
Here are a few great resources for further reading and learning:
Goal 13 Overview (2023, United Nations)
SDG Tracker (2023, Our World in Data)
UNFCCC (2023, United Nations)
Climate Reality Project (2023, Climate Reality Project)