Development and climate represent a long-standing pairing in international cooperation, dating back to the well-known United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. It was at that event that the political foundations of sustainable development were laid and two legally binding conventions initiated: the Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD). While both conventions were ratified by Italy in 1994, the same year the Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), was opened for signature by UN member states, and ratified by Italy three years later.
In 2023, the Conference of the Parties to the Framework Convention on Climate Change reached its 28th edition (COP28) took place in a different global climate context, characterized by the continuous increase in the concentration of the main greenhouse gases (GHG): carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrogen oxides (N2O) and sulphides (SF6).
The amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, in fact, has increased by 33.8% since 1959, and by about 51% since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. As a result of the increased consumption of fossil fuels, GHG emissions have accelerated since 1970, reaching 9,500 million tonnes in 2015, the year of the Paris Climate Agreement.
The increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases is the primary driver of global rise in temperatures. The increase in the concentration of GHG in the atmosphere has corresponded to an increase in the average global surface temperature of 1.1°C compared to the 1850-1900 levels, mainly occurred in the last decade.
The Paris Agreement adopted at COP21, which entered into force on 4 November 2016, aims to limit the growth of the Planet’s average temperature to well below 2°C compared to pre-industrial levels, pursuing every effort to limit this growth to within 1.5°C.
Given these limits, measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (mitigation measures) should be so ambitious as to halve them by 2050, but without the certainty of not exceeding the +2°C threshold.
The IPCC Sixth Assessment Report on Climate Change (AR6) of 2023 highlighted the urgency of implementing these mitigation measures, considering that in 2019 greenhouse gas emissions were 12% higher than in 2010. Taking into account 2019 as a base year, a 21% and 43% emissions reduction should occur by 2030 in order to stay below the 2°C and 1.5°C temperature thresholds, respectively.
ACTION IN RESPONSE TO CLIMATE CHANGE
The development cooperation initiatives carried out by the Agency are consistent with global climate action and are framed within the mandate of the three Rio Conventions. This is why specific parameters called Rio markers are used to identify initiatives targeting the implementation of such conventions, quantifying the financial flows earmarked to mitigation, adaptation, biodiversity and desertification objectives.
International cooperation and ecosystem management aim to achieve climate-resilient development. In particular, mitigation and adaptation actions are articulated within Office V’s competence areas, including renewable energy and sustainable forest management, seas and oceans, water resources and urban development. Consistent with the indications of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the climate actions carried out by the Agency contribute to keeping global warming within +1.5°C, as a feasibility threshold for adaptation measures, and to achieving the highest level of synergy with mitigation measures, aimed at reducing emissions by 2030.
The climate actions and adaptation and mitigation measures implemented by the Agency’s cooperation initiatives are geared towards meeting the emissions reduction targets set by the countries that signed the Paris Agreement, as inscribed and recorded in the so-called Nationally Determined Contributions – NDCs.
As the IPCC points out, the global goal is twofold: delivering a greenhouse gas emissions reduction of approximately 50% by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.
