UN Climate Change News, 29 June 2021 - Climate action in Asia and the Pacific will come into focus next month with Asia-Pacific Climate Week 2021 (APCW 2021) taking place 6-9 July. Registration for the sessions is now open.
APCW 2021 is poised to accelerate collaboration and integrate climate action into recovery from the global pandemic. The COVID-19 health crisis has put a spotlight on the need for resilience against emerging risks and collaboration to solve pressing challenges.
Virtual sessions will discuss approaches to align COVID-19 recovery investment with the Paris Agreement, adapt to emerging climate risks, and accelerate sustainable solutions in response to the climate emergency. The meeting will bring together governments, private sector leaders and civil society to engage in solution-oriented dialogues and showcase climate action.
The APCW 2021 Virtual Thematic Sessions are part of a series of three Regional Climate Weeks leading up to the UN Climate Change Conference COP26 in November. They include virtual meetings for the Asia-Pacific region, Latin America and the Caribbean (LACCW 2021) and Africa (ACW 2021).
The results of all three Regional Climate Week Virtual Thematic Sessions will inform Ministerial sessions later in the year and bring the voice of the regions to COP26.
APCW 2021 is hosted by the Government of Japan and organized in collaboration with partners - UN Development Programme, UN Environment Programme and the World Bank Group. Support comes from regional partners, including the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
The thematic sessions constitute a collaborative platform to address pressing challenges and will feature dialogues based around key themes to unlock increased climate ambition. The three themes are:
- National actions and economy-wide approaches
- Integrated approaches for climate-resilient development
- Seizing transformation opportunities
These same themes were in focus at the recent Virtual Thematic Sessions at LACCW 2021. The event for Latin America and the Caribbean brought together more than 5,000 registered participants and hundreds of leaders and experts to discuss how the region can speed the transition to a low-emission development model that is resilient in the face of extreme weather and other impacts.
LACCW 2021 materials are posted online along with Action Hub videos that showcase climate action on the ground.
APCW 2021 will be held entirely online, with virtual participation possible from anywhere in the world. Stakeholders working on climate action in Asia and the Pacific can register for APCW 2021 here.
About the UNFCCC
With 197 Parties, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has near universal membership and is the parent treaty of the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement. The main aim of the Paris Agreement is to keep a global average temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius and to drive efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The UNFCCC is also the parent treaty of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The ultimate objective of all agreements under the UNFCCC is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that will prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system, in a time frame which allows ecosystems to adapt naturally and enables sustainable development.
