Author: Richard Samans
Original article is here.
Excerpt:
Recognizing that national governments are not the only game in town when it comes to climate action, a growing number of cities and states as well as leading companies and civil society organizations began setting their own emission reduction targets and engaging in their own international cooperative initiatives several years ago. These efforts intensified after the failure by governments to reach agreement on a UN accord in Copenhagen in 2009 and were instrumental in contributing positive momentum to the Paris negotiations in 2015.
Many of these leadership initiatives have continued to gather strength and are a bright spot in an outlook that has recently been clouded by national political setbacks for climate progress in countries such as the U.S., Australia and Brazil. But they remain just that — leadership initiatives involving the most committed cities, states, companies, NGOs and universities. The world lacks a universal framework, analogous to the one created in Paris to engage all national governments, to scale such bottom-up action across society and make it common rather than just best practice for companies, states, cities and non-profit institutions around the world.