4 Ways to Deliver Bold Action on Climate and Justice This Year at Back-to-Back UN Summits

The briefing outlines four strategic priorities for the upcoming UN Climate Action and SDG Summits: ramping up ambition for systemic economic change, ensuring a just transition that protects vulnerable populations, scaling high-impact solutions across six key sectors, and establishing inclusive long-term goals for carbon neutrality and equity.

• To avoid the worst climate consequences, the summits must move beyond minor adjustments to existing economic systems and instead implement radical changes. Recommended signals for 2020 include increasing carbon prices to between $40-80 per ton of carbon dioxide, phasing out fossil fuels globally, establishing sustainable standards for infrastructure and buildings, and requiring science-based targets for all Fortune 500 companies.
• Climate action must be integrated with social equity to prevent regressive impacts and ensure a just transition. The document highlights specific national models: Germany's Climate Action Plan 2050 and Ghana's 2018 National Dialogue on Decent Work and Just Transition use impact assessments for low-income households, while Canada uses a redistributive carbon pricing approach that returns more money via tax credits to 70 percent of households than they pay in taxes.
• There are $26 trillion in opportunities across six milestones—energy, transport, land use, industry, infrastructure, and finance—to scale solutions by 2020. These include the total shift of public transport fleets to electric trains and buses, the scaling of renewable energies, and the decarbonization of heavy industries and infrastructure.
• Quantifying the co-benefits of climate action for sustainable development can build national momentum. For example, an Indonesian government report indicates a low-carbon development strategy could reduce extreme poverty by 4.2% and create 15.3 million jobs by 2045. In Mexico, treating industrial and urban wastewater to address scarcity could save one sixth of the water used for irrigation.
• Countries should establish inclusive, long-term goals for carbon neutrality and equity to provide the policy and fiscal certainty required by investors and decision-makers. These strategies should include zero-emission transport, building, and energy systems, as well as 100% renewables.

APA

Bouyé, M. (2019). 4 Ways to Deliver Bold Action on Climate and Justice This Year at Back-to-Back UN Summits. World Resources Institute. https://www.wri.org/insights/4-ways-deliver-bold-action-climate-and-justice-year-back-back-un-summits

Chicago

Bouyé, Mathilde. 4 Ways to Deliver Bold Action on Climate and Justice This Year at Back-to-Back UN Summits. World Resources Institute, 2019. https://www.wri.org/insights/4-ways-deliver-bold-action-climate-and-justice-year-back-back-un-summits.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Bouyé |first1=Mathilde |title=4 Ways to Deliver Bold Action on Climate and Justice This Year at Back-to-Back UN Summits |publisher=World Resources Institute |date=28 May 2019 |url=https://www.wri.org/insights/4-ways-deliver-bold-action-climate-and-justice-year-back-back-un-summits |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{bouy2019ways, author = {Bouyé, Mathilde}, title = {{4 Ways to Deliver Bold Action on Climate and Justice This Year at Back-to-Back UN Summits}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2019}, month = may, url = {https://www.wri.org/insights/4-ways-deliver-bold-action-climate-and-justice-year-back-back-un-summits}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }