Editing IPCC:AR6/WGII/Chapter-1 (section)

=== 1.1.2 Policy Context ===

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Since AR5, climate action has grown at all levels of governance as well as among non-governmental organisations, small and large enterprises, and citizens. Two international agreements—the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development—jointly provide overarching goals for climate action. The 2015 Paris Agreement frames direct local, national and private sector actions aligned with long-term goals addressing mitigation, adaptation and finance. For mitigation, the agreement calls for ‘holding the increase in global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels’, ‘pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C’ and ‘reaching net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the second half of this century’ ( [[#UNFCCC--2016|UNFCCC, 2016]] ). For adaptation, the agreement calls for ‘increasing the ability to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change and foster climate resilience’ ( [[#UNFCCC--2016|UNFCCC, 2016]] , Article 2), as well as having a dedicated ‘global goal on adaptation’ ( [[#Lesnikowski--2017|Lesnikowski et al., 2017]] ; [[#Persson--2019|Persson, 2019]] ). For finance, the agreement seeks to make ‘financial flows consistent with a pathway towards low GHG emissions and climate resilient development’.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted in 2015 by UN member states, sets out 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), frames policies for achieving a more sustainable future and aligns efforts globally to prioritise ending extreme poverty, protecting the planet and promoting more peaceful, prosperous and inclusive societies. SDG 13 (‘Climate Action’) provides benchmarks to align the Paris Agreement’s call to ‘strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change, in the context of sustainable development and efforts to eradicate poverty’. Since AR5, several new international conventions have identified climate change adaptation and risk reduction as important global priorities for sustainable development, including the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR) ( [[#Tozier%20de%20la%20Poterie--2015|Tozier de la Poterie and Baudoin, 2015]] ; [[#UNISDR--2015|UNISDR, 2015]] ), the finance-oriented Addis Ababa Action Agenda ( [[#UN--2015|UN, 2015]] ) and the New Urban Agenda ( [[#UN--2017|UN, 2017]] ). For example, the SFDRR recognises some disasters as ‘exacerbated by climate change and increasing in frequency and intensity, significantly [impeding] progress towards sustainable development’ ( [[#UNISDR--2015|UNISDR, 2015]] ). The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is one of the key international legal instruments for sustainable development for ‘the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilisation of genetic resources’ ( [[#CBD--2011|CBD, 2011]] ). The CBD and its Aichi targets recognises that biodiversity is affected by climate change, with negative consequences for human well-being, but biodiversity, through ecosystem services, contributes to both climate change mitigation and adaptation (CBD, 2010). There is concern that many of the proposed post-2020 biodiversity targets of the CBD may not be met due to climate change impacts (post-2020 biodiversity targets from Chapter 2; [[#Arneth--2020|Arneth et al., 2020]] ).

At the national level, over 2,315 laws and policies that address climate change now exist in 196 countries and a number of territories as of May 2021 ( [[#Grantham%20Research%20Institute%20on%20Climate%20Change%20and%20the%20Environment%20and%20Sabin%20Center%20for%20Climate%20Change%20Law--2021|Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment and Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, 2021]] ). Sub-national and non-state actors, including city and state governments and firms and investors, have also increasingly launched climate actions ( [[#Hale--2021|Hale et al., 2021]] ). Climate change litigation is gaining salience for both governments and corporations as the number of cases filed around the world grew from 834 between 1986 and 2014 to 1,006 since 2015 and growing ( [[#Setzer--2021|Setzer and Higham, 2021]] ).

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