United Nations Climate Summit 2014: Catalyzing Action

The 2014 Climate Summit is part of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s strategy to engage global leaders and advance climate action and ambition.

The Summit will serve as a public platform for leaders at the highest level – all UN Member States, as well as finance, business, civil society and local leaders from public and private sectors – to:

• Catalyze ambitious action on the ground to reduce emissions and strengthen climate resilience and;
• Mobilize political will for an ambitious global legal agreement by 2015 that limits the world to a less than 2-degree Celsius rise in global temperature.

The Secretary-General will engage a range of key stakeholders to seize opportunities for concrete action and build the necessary political will afforded by a gathering of global leaders. Work will build on existing processes and initiatives to foster action in areas that go far to reduce emissions and strengthen resilience – such as energy; short-lived climate pollutants; cities and transportation; land-use (e.g. related to sustainable agriculture and forestry); adaptation and disaster risk reduction; and climate finance and the economic drivers that cut across these and other climate-related sectors. Implementation of this strategy will be led by the Secretary-General, supported by the Climate Change Support Team (CCST) working closely with the UN System. Other relevant stakeholders will be engaged as appropriate.

The Summit is intended to be a solutions-focused Summit that is separate from, but complementary to, the UNFCCC negotiating process. It aims to provide evidence that leaders across sectors and at all levels are taking action, thus expanding the reach of what is possible today, in 2015, and beyond.