Gonzalo Muñoz and Nigel Topping, Champion of COP25 and COP26, respectively, held a meeting with the international press organized by Imagen de Chile on the eve of the start of the climate summit in Glasgow.
Just days before the start of COP 26, the High Level Climate Champions, Gonzalo Muñoz for Chile (COP25) and Nigel Topping for the United Kingdom (COP26), presented Chile's footprint at the Conference of the Parties and explained the progress they have made in their role at the Annual Summit of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, to be held in Glasgow, Scotland, between October 31 and November 12. The role of the High Level Climate Champion is to act as a bridge between the Presidency and the Parties (national governments) and non-state actors: companies, investors, cities, other sub-national governments and civil society.
On the occasion, both Champions presented the progress of the Race to Zero, Race to Resilience and Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero campaigns, which they are leading.
In relation to Race to Zero, the international campaign for zero carbon recovery, and which was officially launched in June 2020, which generated a work with companies, cities and regions that entered the Climate Ambition Alliance (CAA) in September 2019 and accepted carbon neutrality commitments around a common goal, metrics and methodology, arrives with the commitment of 799 cities, 35 regions, 4,475 companies, 45 health institutions representing more than 11,500 hospitals and 731 universities.
For its part, Race to Resilience, the campaign that outlines the challenge of increasing the resilience of 4 billion people by 2030 in three areas of human development (urban, rural and coastal areas), has so far been conducted by 24 parties, 100 countries, 1,000 initiatives, and 2.3 billion people impacted.
Finally, GFANZ (Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero), which has worked to mobilize the financial sector, in particular to align private finance with the 1.5 goal by committing to net zero emissions by 2050, has managed to commit more than $91 trillion that is aligned with the 1.5 goal, with assets managed by 300 financial institutions in 40 countries.
Gonzalo Muñoz, COP25 High Level Climate Champion, highlighted the global progress in these matters. "If all of us go back to analyze where we were when we started the work, personally and institutionally, in relation to climate, at the beginning of 2019, three years ago, we would be very surprised. How much was being covered in the media around the world, we didn't even have Greta Thunberg. And how that has been reflected in civil society. Of course we've had decades of civil society movements, doing hard work and pushing for this agenda, but in the last couple of years this exploded. And it has given space to realize the importance of science, the level of engagement. Only two years ago, concepts like 1.5 degrees in many meetings were not acceptable. Which is a very tough position for many stakeholders around the world. Follow the science, that simple concept drove some people crazy. Concepts like climate emergency, regenerative agriculture, electromobility, the logic of how we understand the problem and how we engage with the problem has changed incredibly, in less than 3 years. And of course they make us more hopeful about the challenges we face. And I understand that we are in a better position on the global understanding of the problem", explains the Chilean.
Nigel Topping, COP26 High Level Climate Champion, highlighted Chile's role in development processes. "It has been a multilateral process. From one country to another. And the representation that has been made between Chile and the UK, after the Paris Agreement, is one of the greatest diplomatic efforts: Poland, which was the host of the previous event, then Chile which took COP 25, and was available to innovate and prepared us very well to UK. It was a great post between COP and COP and one of the things that was reflected early on in Gonzalo's role as Champion, was to put science at the center. And to put an important group of partners from the Americas, working on, first, putting mitigation and net zero to 2050. And then, to build this idea that we have to develop these three campaigns to reflect these three columns of the Paris Agreement", he explained.
Finally, the 18 industries most committed to carbon neutrality and that will lead the way globally were detailed. Among others, Aviation, Finance (banks, asset management, asset owners), Clean energy, Refrigeration, Internal combustion engine end (heavy duty vehicles, buses, light duty vehicles), ICT, Mobile and telecommunications, Retail, Fashion, FMCG, Nature-based solutions, Land use and food, Pharmaceuticals, Water and Cement.
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