Take immediate action to combat climate change and its effects.
Climate change is a key challenge for sustainable development. The warming of the Earth’s atmosphere triggers changes in the global climate system. In less developed regions of the world, these threaten the livelihoods of large sections of the population, while in developed regions it is primarily infrastructure and individual sectors of the economy that are exposed to the risks of climate change. Changes in precipitation and temperature cycles also affect ecosystems such as forests, cultivated agricultural land, mountain areas and oceans, as well as the plants, animals and people that live in them. Globally, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions increased by over 50% between 1990 and 2012.
Goal 13 calls on countries to integrate climate action into their national policies and to support each other in meeting the challenges. Under Goal 13, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is recognized as the key international intergovernmental forum for negotiating the global response to climate change. Complementary to these negotiations is the strengthening of resilience to climate-related natural disasters. The pledge by developed countries to collectively raise $100 billion annually by 2020 from all sources to help developing countries adapt to climate change is reaffirmed.
