New portal highlights city and private sector climate action

Press release:

Climate Action Portal to Capture and Catalyze Climate Action in Support of 2015 Agreement

Site Spotlights Rapidly Growing Momentum by Cities, Subnational Regions and Companies

Lima -- A way to increase the visibility of the wealth of climate action by cities, regions, companies and investors was launched today by the government of Peru.

The portal aims to demonstrate the strategic action being taken by ‘non-state actors either individually or as part of cooperative initiatives. The on-line site, developed with the support of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), has been named the Nazca Climate Action Portal, after the vast ancient lines found in the landscape of Peru.

These world-famous works of art depict among other things the agility of the hummingbird, the creativity of the monkey and the soaring ambition of the condor—all key qualities that are needed now and into the future for realizing short and long term climate action.

The Nazca Climate Action portal, launched with a first group of non-state actors, will progressively showcase the extraordinary range of game-changing actions being undertaken by thousands of cities, investors and corporations. Many of these actions—ranging from increases in energy efficiency and deployment of renewables to carbon pricing policies and investments in adaptation— are happening in partnership with governments, organizations and international bodies, including the United Nations.

While the range of actions is impressive, it is clear that they are not sufficient to address the challenge of climate change. The data underlines the fact that cities, regions, companies and others need a strong, universal climate agreement to be signed at COP 21 in Paris to be able to unleash even further innovation in the areas of mitigation and adaptation.

The portal will draw on data from established, credible sources with a strong track record of reporting and tracking progress. For the launch these include the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) and the Carbonn Climate Registry. More data partners will be added throughout the year.

The portal will also provide a site for showcasing the many ambitious pledges and initiatives launched at the UN Secretary-General’s Climate Summit in September 2014, covering reducing deforestation along supply chains to greening the investments of the insurance industry. Other cooperative initiatives, such as those aggregated in the Climate Initiatives Database, will also be included throughout the year.

Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, President of the 20th Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC taking place in Lima and the Peruvian Environment Minister, said today that he believed the new portal will trigger confidence and ambition.

“We are very pleased to be contributing this way to showcasing the impressive scale of action by cities, regions, companies and others in a way that will provide additional momentum and urgency into the process through to COP 21. Much of the ambition featured here will provide inspiration for what can be achieved, which is why we have named it Nazca. The Nazca lines symbolize the creativity and the vision that more than 190 countries will need to finalize a strong 2015 agreement. These ancestral lines hold significance for the peoples of this region and the peoples of the world as we look to the past to inform the present and inspire a new and better future for humanity,” he said.

Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC, said: “The Nazca Climate Action portal is a great move forward in showcasing climate action and we congratulate the Peruvian Presidency in taking this step. The insight hosted here will provide inspiration for what can be done but it is not designed to be an exhaustive list of everything that is happening on climate change by non-state actors. More insight will be added throughout 2015 in the lead up to COP 21, as the momentum for an agreement in Paris builds throughout the year”