Global Civil Society & the UN Sustainable Development Goals

Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts

Climate Action


Climate change is now affecting every country on every continent. It is disrupting national economies and affecting lives, costing people, communities and countries dearly today and even more tomorrow. Weather patterns are changing, sea levels are rising, weather events are becoming more extreme and greenhouse gas emissions are now at their highest levels in history. Without action, the world’s average surface temperature is likely to surpass 3 degrees centigrade this century. The poorest and most vulnerable people are being affected the most.

Affordable, scalable solutions are now available to enable countries to leapfrog to cleaner, more resilient economies. The pace of change is quickening as more people are turning to renewable energy and a range of other measures that will reduce emissions and increase adaptation efforts. Climate change, however, is a global challenge that does not respect national borders. It is an issue that requires solutions that need to be coordinated at the international level to help developing countries move toward a low-carbon economy.

To strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change, countries adopted the Paris Agreement at the COP21 in Paris, which went into force in November of 2016. In the agreement, all countries agreed to work to limit global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees centigrade. As of April 2018, 175 parties had ratified the Paris Agreement and 10 developing countries had submitted their first iteration of their national adaptation plans for responding to climate change.

Name Acronym Founded City HQ Country/Territory HQ Type I Type II

World Merit

Liverpool UK J

World Meteorological Organization

WMO 1947 Geneva Switzerland B g

World Neighbors

WN 1951 Oklahoma City OK USA G v

World Organization of the Scout Movement

WOSM 1907 Kuala Lumpur Malaysia B

World Organization of United Cities and Local Governments

UCLG 2004 Barcelona Spain B

World Packaging Organisation

WPO 1968 Vienna Austria C y

World Resources Forum Association

WRFA 2012 St Gallen Switzerland E y

World Sailing

1907 London UK B y

World Silambam Association

WSA 1999 Petaling Jaya Malaysia G

world stainless association

worldstainless 1995 Brussels Belgium F y

World Steel Association

worldsteel 1967 Brussels Belgium C

World Tourism Forum Lucerne

Lucerne Switzerland G

World Travel Agents Associations Alliance

WTAAA 2008 Benmore South Africa C

World Travel and Tourism Council

WTTC 1990 London UK F v

World Urban Parks

2015 Edmonton AB Canada C

World Weather Watch

WWW 1968 Geneva Switzerland F g

World Wide Fund for Nature

WWF 1961 Gland Switzerland F f

World Wind Energy Association

WWEA 2001 Bonn Germany C y

World Wind Energy Institute

WWEI 2006 Hurup Thy Denmark E j

World Wood Day Foundation

WWDF 2013 F f

World Youth Student and Educational Travel Confederation

WYSE Travel Confederation 2006 Amsterdam Netherlands C y

World’s Youth for Climate Justice

WYCJ The Hague Netherlands F

WorldFish

1975 Bayan Lepas Malaysia E

Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy

1991 Wuppertal Germany G j

YES-Europe

2016 Geneva Switzerland F

YOU Stiftung - Bildung für Kinder in Not

YOU Foundation 1992 Düsseldorf Germany G f

Young European Leadership

YEL Brussels Belgium F

Youth and Environment Europe

YEE 1983 Prague Czechia E

Youth Climate

YOUNGO 2005 E

Youth For Public Transport

Y4PT 2009 Sint-Jans-Molenbeek Belgium F

Zentrum für Internationale Friedenseinsätze

ZIF 2002 Berlin Germany G

Zero Emissions Platform

ZEP 2005 Brussels Belgium F

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