As countries negotiate the next climate agreement, due in December 2015, there is growing attention to the actions and initiatives that cities, regions, private companies, countries, and civil society groups are taking now to mitigate and adapt to climate change. This groundswell of climate action offers an extraordinary opportunity to both complement and catalyze the intergovernmental negotiations under the UNFCCC. At COP20 in Lima, the Peruvian government and the UNFCCC Secretariat launched the Non-State Actor Zone for Climate Action (NAZCA), an online platform to showcase climate action at all levels.

In the lead up to COP21 in December 2015, how can this groundswell of actions be brought to a higher level of scale and ambition? What role can the NAZCA platform play in this regard? How can the NAZCA platform be further developed to aggregate, catalyze, and showcase climate actions?

This one-day workshop, held on 06 Feb. 2015 immediately before the February 2015 ADP session in Geneva, addressed key questions regarding the further development of the NAZCA platform. It brought together participants from climate initiatives, data platforms, supportive governments, the UNFCCC Secretariat, and observers and advocates of “bottom up” climate action. Sessions consisted of a mix of full group discussion and smaller breakouts. The workshop produced a concrete set of refined recommendations to guide the development of the NAZCA platform to Paris and beyond.

The workshop, co-sponsored by the Centre for International Environmental Studies is part of Galvanizing the Groundswell of Climate Actions, an initiative of Stanley Foundation, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford University.