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SINCE THE COP21 CONFERENCE, THE WORLD HAS STEPPED UP ITS FIGHT AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE.

Adopted on 12 December 2015, the Paris Agreement came into effect on 4 November 2016; it has currently been ratified by 169 parties (168 countries + the European Union).

Just as governments have set targets to cut their carbon emissions and modify the consequences of climate change, particularly on water, companies have pledged to limit their carbon footprint and speed up their development of low-carbon technological solutions. Shortly before the COP23 conference in Bonn, fifty German companies, with a total combined revenue of 300 billion euros, appealed to the future government to begin phasing out coal. Also at COP23, and in sharp contrast to Donald Trump s decision to pull the US out of the Paris Agreement, America s Pledge held a launch event in Bonn while a report by the WRI and the Rocky Mountain Institute announced that 20 governments, 110 cities and 1,300 companies had, by 1 October, set target figures for cutting their emissions.

By signing up to zero net energy measures in their regions or joining networks such as C40, cities are adopting climate policies and, often by working closely with their inhabitants, inventing more environmentally-friendly models of urban behaviour.

The world of finance has also come on board in a big way, reflected in the global rise of green bonds and the number of investors and banks decarbonising their portfolios or no longer investing in coal.

Climate events in 2017 have painfully brought home the need for such action from all stakeholders, whether they be institutional, economic

the world in a climate emergency

BACKGROUND AND ISSUES