The SDGs provide a long-term, non-partisan framework for a more sustainable vision of urban development that provides equal opportunities for all inhabitants, promotes healthy living environments with access to green space, and is resilient in the face of everyday disasters and climatic hazards.
Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
The global temperature has already risen 1.1ºC above the pre-industrial level, with glaciers melting and the sea level rising. Impacts of climate change also includes flooding and drought, displacing millions of people, sinking them into poverty and hunger, denying them access to basic services, such as health and education, expanding inequalities, stifling economic growth and even causing conflict. By 2030, an estimated 700 million people will be at risk of displacement by drought alone.
Taking urgent action to combat climate change and its devastating impacts is therefore an imperative to save lives and livelihood, and key to making the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Goals – the blueprint for a better future – a reality.
In 2020, concentrations of global greenhouse gases reached new highs, and real-time data point to continued increases. As these concentrations rise, so does the Earth’s temperature. In 2021, the global mean temperature was about 1.1°C above the pre-industrial level (from 1850 to 1900). The years from 2015 to 2021 were the seven warmest on record.
To limit warming to 1.5° Celsius above pre-industrial levels, as set out in the Paris Agreement, global greenhouse gas emissions will need to peak before 2025. Then they must decline by 43 per cent by 2030 and to net zero by 2050. Countries are articulating climate action plans to cut emissions and adapt to climate impacts through nationally determined contributions. However, current national commitments are not sufficient to meet the 1.5°C target.
Then again, WMO confirmed 2022 to be was the fifth or sixth warmest year on record. In an alert, the agency also explained that 2022 was the eighth consecutive year that global temperatures rose at least 1ºC above pre-industrial levels, fuelled by ever-rising greenhouse gas concentrations and accumulated heat.
Climate change is affecting every country on every continent. It is disrupting national economies and affecting different lives. Weather systems are changing, sea levels are rising, and weather events are becoming more extreme.
The Paris Agreement, adopted in 2015, aims to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping the global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The agreement also aims to strengthen the capacity of countries to deal with the effects of climate change through appropriate financial flows, a new technology framework and an enhanced capacity development framework.
València, through its Smart City Office, is working to improve the quality of life in urban environments, following the SDG roadmap for a more balanced and equitable urban development.
