About the ACA
About the Alliances for Climate Action
Our Challenge
Human-induced climate change is real, it is happening now, and it affects us all—from the poles to the tropics, and from the mountains to the oceans. We all have a part to play in addressing this urgent problem. And it is urgent.
We have roughly ten years to transform the global economy, so that global emissions are cut in half by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050. The science is clear and paints an alarming picture of what lies ahead if countries don't step up. Fortunately, the science is also clear on the actions required and, together, we have the resources and technology to make the necessary changes.
While the Paris Agreement gave the world hope that humanity can address the global climate challenge, national governments cannot solve the climate crisis alone. More bottom-up climate action is urgently needed to accelerate nationally-determined processes of transition towards decarbonized, climate-resilient societies. "Crowding in" more companies, local government leaders and many others at the national level is essential to implement current national pledges and advocate for more ambitious ones.
Domestic Barriers
Unifying subnational actors at the national level faces three main barriers. First, there is still a limited number of companies, investors, local governments, academic institutions and civil society groups focused on climate action, public awareness, and advocacy in most countries. Second, domestic climate champions have not been publicly visible about their work, nor vocal about the urgency and opportunity of the low-carbon transition within their countries. Third, subnational and non-state actors have tended to step up either individually or along constituency lines. This siloed approach has limited their impact.
Well-organized, influential and credible multi-stakeholder alliances in support of climate action do not exist in most countries and are critical to creating both strong market signals and political space to speed up the low-carbon transition.
Our Bold, Innovative Solution
Delivering on the Paris Agreement will require the full mobilization of the global community. ACA seeks to nurture a new form of climate leadership and realize global ambition locally by articulating domestic constituencies of business, local government, academic and civil society leaders in key countries around the world into national multi-stakeholder alliances committed to driving decarbonization in their countries.
The Power of Alliances
While each domestic alliance is designed to fit the individual country’s national circumstances, they share key common attributes.
As a global Network, Alliances for Climate Action connects member alliances to broaden and deepen the collective knowledge and capacity for collaborative climate work. As this shared knowledge grows, it is encouraging further creativity and innovation in climate action.
The Alliances also come together on the global stage to showcase the actions that their members are taking, inspire more climate action across the world and encourage national governments to be more ambitious.
Alliances for Climate Action is an Accelerator Partner of the UN Race to Zero Campaign. With support from the ACA partners and the UN Race to Zero Partner Initiatives, ACA amplifies the Campaign in countries with member alliances to expand the number, geographic representation and diversity of institutions (including companies, cities, regions, financial and educational institutions) that commit to rigorous and immediate action to halve global emissions by 2030 and deliver a healthier, fairer zero carbon world in time. ACA also grounds the Campaign in member alliance countries by providing a durable national platform for institutions to radically collaborate and drive an inclusive net-zero transition in their countries.
Who are the members / signatories?
Click an alliance to learn more about members / signatories involved in each organization:
What do the members / signatories do?
• Collaborate with other alliance members to share ideas and plan climate action
• Organize and execute individual and joint action to further climate goals
• Encourage new actors to join the alliance and become active partners
• Reach out to national government representatives to encourage ambitious approaches
• Build public awareness and support of climate action domestically and internationally
• Engage in peer-to-peer learning, networking, and knowledge-sharing
Global Partners
“Mayors of the world’s greatest cities are committed to delivering on the highest ambition of the Paris Agreement and are delivering bold policies for a sustainable future. Collaboration with business leaders, states, regional governments and civil society is essential to delivering on this ambitious vision. C40 Cities is proud to join this important initiative to accelerate climate action in countries around the world.”- Mark Watts, Executive Director, C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group
“While national governments are vital to the transition to low-carbon, it is through collective action and collaboration between companies, investors, cities, states and regions that we will reach the pace and scale needed to truly build a sustainable economy. Data and transparency are vital to this transition, with disclosure of environmental risk and impacts being the crucial first step for action. CDP holds the richest global dataset of self-reported environmental data from companies and cities around the world, and we are seeing unprecedented action. The transformation of the global economy is already underway. Now is the time to urgently accelerate this shift to meet the goals of the historic Paris Agreement.”- Paul Simpson, CEO, CDP
“The climate crisis has no borders and will require sustained efforts, global solidarity and ambitious commitments, including on long-term finance. These will only be achieved through strong cooperation among different stakeholders and civil society. Along with the Alliances for Climate Action, we aim at nurturing such an environment at the regional and national levels, building strategies that will allow climate impacts to be highlighted and stimulate the development of truly transformative climate action plans.”- Tasneem Essop, Executive Director, Climate Action Network - International (CAN)
“The Climate Group brings together powerful networks of businesses and state and regional governments to accelerate climate action. We know that through effective collaboration at the subnational level we can shift global markets and policies towards a world of under 2 ℃ of warming.”- Helen Clarkson, CEO, The Climate Group
“We have long held that inclusive dialogue and diverse perspectives create better policy solutions, and that actors at all levels must work together to tackle the climate crisis. The Stanley Center is proud to join ACAs as a global partner to help catalyze non-state and subnational action and drive impact through collaboration. We will continue our partnership with ACAs to bring a surge of momentum in climate ambition to international moments and to land those moments back in local contexts in tangible and actionable ways.”- Keith Porter, President and CEO, the Stanley Center for Peace and Security
“Ensuring a climate safe future requires cooperation at all levels. Avina is working with non-state actors and national governments to build multi-stakeholder partnerships and the new institutional frameworks needed for the implementation of the Paris Agreement. Our joint work with ACA and its members enable us to enhance scale, accelerate innovation and increase our impact building truly national movements for climate action.”- Gabriel Baracatt, Executive Director, Fundación Avina.
Businesses around the world are rapidly taking up the challenge to set science-based targets and taking action to help keep global temperature rise to 1.5°C. Their actions can inspire their customers and wider supply chains, creating the positive Ambition Loop we need to create a net-zero economy. Business and policy must work in synergy: business action inspires new policies, and policy implementation allows businesses to go further and faster. The ACA movement builds on these mechanics to mobilize different constituencies, whether faith groups, local governments, or universities to advocate for 1.5°C aligned climate policies. The great collaboration of the ACAs gives policymakers the confidence they need by showing they have the support of the whole of society to set the ambitious climate policy needed to reach net-zero by 2050.- María Mendiluce, CEO, We Mean Business Coalition
“There’s a new face of climate leadership emerging from around the world: CEOs, university presidents, civil society and leaders from local government and indigenous communities. They are demanding climate action and partnering together to accelerate implementation in key countries. This is a global groundswell and we are all in.”- Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, Leader, WWF's global climate and energy programme