A Virtuous Circle: U.N. initiative expanding climate action beyond national level, says top U.N. climate advisor
 
At the recent U.N. climate talks in Paris, national governments weren’t the only entities asked to do their part to help cap the rise in average global temperature since preindustrial times to 2 degrees Celsius. So, too, were so-called “non-state actors” such as NGOs and industry leaders, who along with national representatives, were urged to form partnerships and increase climate action in a process called the Action Agenda. The goal: to launch a virtuous cycle of climate action, where demonstration of action on the ground encourages negotiators to make more ambitious pledges, which, in turn, generate even more action.
 
In a lecture hosted by the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change on March 2, Janos Pasztor, Senior Advisor to the U.N. Secretary-General on Climate Change, described the U.N.’s Action Agenda from its origins to its emergence at COP21 to its next steps. Pasztor, who received his M.S. and B.S. degrees at MIT, has spent the past 35 years working for various U.N. and non-governmental organizations on issues of energy and environment, with an increasing focus on climate change. His previous U.N. appointments include Assistant Secretary-General on Climate Change, and Director of the Secretary-General’s Climate Change Support Team.