Newsletter: September 2019

The Climate and Clean Air Coalition's 11th High Level Assembly convened last week in New York on the eve of the UN Climate Action Summit.

In response to the UN Secretary-General’s call for increased climate ambition and action, our leaders adopted a new 2030 Vision and extended the Coalition’s mandate till the end of 2030. Each of the 77 ministers and high-level representatives present at the Assembly demonstrated their action and ambition.

The European Commission underscored the importance of actions to reduce short-lived climate pollutants in the long-term strategy. China showed how integrating air pollution can rally support for low-carbon climate strategies. Côte d’Ivoire launched the Coalition's Integrated Assessment for Africa on climate, air pollution and food security. And, we welcomed the United Arab Emirates as our newest partner.

Partners, including the heads of the WHO and FAO, highlighted key areas for action: air pollution, efficient cooling, agriculture and food systems. We also launched a Global Methane Alliance with the CEOs of Total and Eni, and took stock of commitments on transport we launched at the last UN Climate Summit.

All this work, and our actions, fed into the Climate Summit:

We supported the Social and Political Drivers work, which ended up with 41 countries and 71 cities, representing more than 600 million people, committing to integrate climate and clean air policy by 2030, with our BreatheLife platform to be used to track progress. We supported the Cool Coalition through our Efficient Cooling Initiative and the “Biarritz Pledge” for fast action, which was initiated by the recent G7 Heads of Government Summit. We joined the Group of Friends for Nature-Based Solutions, offering to convene discussions on agricultural climate action solutions. We also participated in the launches of the US$ 500 million Clean Cooking Fund (hosted by World Bank ESMAP) and of the US$ 50 million Clean Air Fund, and supported WHO in raising awareness of the impact from air pollution through the Pollution Pods exhibit.

Through these initiatives and many others, we believe the Coalition can deliver above and beyond the short-lived climate pollutant reductions needed to keep warming to 1.5˚C and protect people and ecosystems from air pollution - all of this by 2030. We hope you will join us on this crucial mission.