Activities, Chair, Features, Initiatives

Madrid Ambition Drive for Survival #MAD4survival

Madrid Ambition Drive for Survival #MAD4survival

The Office of the President of the Republic of the Marshall Islands released the following statement for the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) presidency:

We invite all parties to the Paris Agreement, as well as organizations and individuals, to join us in the “Madrid Ambition Drive for Survival” #MAD4survival CVF campaign at the UN Climate Change Conference at Madrid, Spain (UNFCCC COP25), ahead of a final week of global negotiations.

Participation for parties to the Paris Agreement is by posting the following text online together with a #MAD4survival image:

Get #MAD4survival COUNTRYNAME is on board the Madrid Ambition Drive for Survival. We’re committed to a new NDC by 2020. #TimeForAction at #COP25. Where do you stand? #climatecrisis

For non-parties (organizations, individuals) kindly post:

Get #MAD4survival. Every country should stand with the most vulnerable by getting on board the Madrid Ambition Drive for Survival. It’s #TimeForAction at #COP25. Commit to a new NDC by 2020. Where do you stand? #climatecrisis

We would encourage leaders or other high representatives and groups of people to include a photo with their post and the #MAD4survival hashtag as below. Download a slide with the #MAD4survival hashtag here (pdf, 0.1mb).

President Hilda C. Heine of the Republic of the Marshall Islands is photographed at Majuro on 7 December 2019 launching the #MAD4survival campaign for the survival of the North Pacific atoll country existentially threatened by the climate crisis and the inaction of polluting nations, as well as to illustrate how any leader or individual can join in.

We are also requesting all parties to convey to the UNFCCC secretariat the commitment to submitting a new NDC in 2020 (deadline to submit the NDC is during first quarter of 2020) and therefore to be considered part of the COP25 Chile presidency’s Climate Ambition Alliance via: secretariat@unfccc.int

BACKGROUND

The survival of most vulnerable nations, and people and communities around the world, is jeopardized by a prevailing environment of inaction by the international community which is failing to do more to tackle the climate crisis. As the planet is rocked by climate shocks, with emissions rising year-on-year, the sum of the current national commitments or NDCs to contribute to the Paris Agreement amount to some 3 degrees Celsius of warming this century. As action is so delayed, an overall improvement in emission targets of the NDCs by 50% is now required to secure the 1.5 degrees Celsius goal of the Paris Agreement (see report). However, many countries have already signaled they are willing to adopt new NDCs in 2020.

The efforts of all parties, though, will be needed. At UNFCCC COP21 in Paris in 2015, it was agreed that parties would be invited to submit new NDCs in 2020, and thereafter every five years. If 2020 is not universally seized, delaying efforts to close the gap between the required ambition of NDCs and the goals of the Paris Agreement by a further half-decade would almost certainly render these goals unachievable, causing the failure of the Paris Agreement just as its regime becomes fully activated in 2020. Nevertheless, the decision of the previous UNFCCC COP24 at Katowice, Poland in December 2018 reaffirmed the invitation for all parties to resubmit NDCs in 2020 and calling for “the highest possible effort by all” (see the CVF Chair reaction to the COP24 outcome here).

In November 2018 the CVF leaders adopted a Communique of the CVF Virtual Summit, supported and prepared by decisions of the November 2016 CVF High Level Meeting at Marrakech, Morocco, and the October 2018 V20 Ministerial Dialogue at Bali, Indonesia. In that Communique the CVF committed to update and raise the level of ambition of our own NDCs by 2020 at the latest, in the context of the provision of robust and predictable international finance and other means of implementation, while seeking to trigger increased national contributions from all nations by 2020 to keep the 1.5°C warming limit within reach, safeguarding those most vulnerable.

To #MAD4survival participants: for the people of the Marshall Islands, kommol tata.

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