New York, 21 March 2024 – The UN Development Programme (UNDP) has unveiled a new YouTube series, Climate Action Explained, which explores what climate action looks like around the world. As climate change impacts intensify, the series outlines the need to scale up the many climate solutions already underway to secure a greener, safer future.
Introduced by UNDP’s Goodwill Ambassador and actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, the four videos showcase how we can adapt to the impacts of climate change, restore the world’s forests, power communities with sustainable energy and enable young people to drive climate action.
The solutions come from 12 countries across five continents: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Ecuador, Georgia, Ghana, Egypt, Kenya, India, Panama, Tuvalu, Uruguay and Zimbabwe.
“The climate crisis can feel overwhelming and scary, but we do have the solutions we need to address this challenge head on. By showcasing the leadership of developing countries around the world, our new video series proves that,” remarked Cassie Flynn, Global Director of Climate Change at UNDP. “What we now need is to boldly scale up these solutions, together.”
The Climate Action Explained video series is part of UNDP’s efforts to ignite public conversation and mobilize action on climate change on the road to the COP30 climate negotiations which will be held in Brazil in 2025. COP30 will mark the ten-year anniversary of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and is a critical opportunity to get the world on a path aligned with limiting global temperature rise to 1.5° C, as countries submit a new round of climate pledges and action plans. These plans – known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) – are at the very heart of the global fight against climate change.
“The climate crisis is already here, hitting headlines across the globe. The bad news is that, without urgent and meaningful action, extreme weather and disasters are set to become only more common and more intense. On the other side of that, we have the good news, which is that progress is possible,” UNDP’s Goodwill Ambassador and actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau said. “The stories highlighted in the Climate Action Explained video series show us that we have the answers to fight climate change and build a better, safer future.”
The Climate Action Explained video series is underpinned by UNDP’s extensive work on climate change and climate action. UNDP’s newly established Climate Hub delivers the UN system’s largest portfolio of support on climate action in more than 140 countries. UNDP’s flagship Climate Promise initiative has supported action to tackle the climate crisis by working with more than 80 percent of the world’s developing countries on their NDC submissions.
The Climate Action Explained video series will be available in English, French and Spanish at launch and will be further translated to other languages in the coming months.
The video series is released jointly with UNDP’s Weather Kids campaign. Designed to look exactly like weather reports television viewers see every day, Weather Kids features children reading projected weather forecasts from 2050, urging meaningful climate action today. Created in partnership with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and The Weather Company, the campaign is part of UNDP’s efforts to boost awareness on the impacts of climate change and to mobilize people around the world to take meaningful climate action.
Media contacts:
For more information on the campaign or to request an interview, please contact:
In the United States: mehmet.erdogan@undp.org
In Europe: florin.marin@undp.org
About UNDP
UNDP is the leading United Nations organization fighting to end the injustice of poverty, inequality and climate change. Working with our broad network of experts and partners in 170 countries, we help nations to build integrated, lasting solutions for people and the planet. Learn more at undp.org or follow at @UNDP.
About UNDP’s Climate Hub
UNDP’s newly established Climate Hub delivers the UN system’s largest portfolio of support on climate action in more than 140 countries. This portfolio is worth over US$2 billion in grant financing and draws on UNDP’s expertise on gender equality, energy, poverty, health, climate security, nature and biodiversity, among others.
About UNDP’s Climate Promise
UNDP’s flagship Climate Promise initiative is the world’s largest offer of support to developing countries on NDC enhancement and implementation. Under the last revision cycle, it supported 85 percent of all developing countries on their NDC submissions. As a result, 91 percent of the supported countries raised mitigation ambition and 93 percent raised adaptation ambition. Nearly 95 percent of all NDCs supported included gender equality considerations and referenced youth inclusion. The revised NDCs also had higher quality data and analysis.
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