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

Planetary warming continued in 2016, setting a record of about 1.1 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial period. The extent of global sea ice fell to 4.14 million square kilometres in 2016, the second lowest on record. Mitigating climate change and its impacts will require building on the momentum achieved by the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. Stronger efforts are also needed to build resilience and limit climate-related hazards and natural disasters. 

•  The Paris Agreement entered into force on 4 November 2016, marking a shift in focus towards implementation of action for the climate and sustainable development. 
•  As of 7 June 2017, 148 Parties had ratified the Paris Agreement; of these, 142 Parties (141 countries and the european Commission) had communicated their first nationally determined contributions to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat.
•  The number of deaths attributed to natural hazards continues to rise, despite progress in implementing disaster risk reduction strategies. From 1990 to 2015, more than 1.6 million people died in internationally reported natural hazards.
•  Many countries have begun implementing national and local disaster risk reduction strategies. In 2014-2015, most reporting countries indicated that environmental impact assessments, legislation on protected areas, climate change adaptation projects and programmes, and integrated planning played a major role in reducing underlying risk factors. 

TheSustainableDevelopmentGoalsReport2017