This document is CliMates' Call for Action 2015 which outlines their positions and objectives regarding climate change. It calls for limiting global warming to 2°C by 2100 through peaking global greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 and reducing them by 2050. It advocates for mitigation and adaptation, sustainability criteria to progress prosperity like circular economy principles, raising climate change awareness, increasing climate finance and investment in renewable energy and efficiency. It also addresses issues like biodiversity, climate justice, environmental refugees and intergenerational equity requiring international cooperation to tackle global sustainability challenges.

1. CliMates' Call for Action 2015
The future we want
This Call for Action reflects the position of the CliMates
organization1.
Authored by the CliMates' network
Edited by Alexandra Gavilano,Aurore Bimont,Thomas Desaunay,VictorWright,VivianeTreves,
Nastasia Keurmeur,Vivian Despoues,Anna Almeida, Daniela Gutierrez, Pierre Manenti, Rachel
Skubel, Laurie Ayouaz, Eleonora Perrotta, Clémentine Cahier
And the board of the association:Antoine Maudinet,Yann Lesestre, Clément Bultheel, Nicolas
Taconet, LeslieTourneville, Susy Grenier, Margaux Jobin and Delphine Blumereau
Some parts of the "CliMates International Summit Call for Action 2012" remain in the call for
Action 2015.
The decision-making process for defining CliMates’ positions on climate change is the following:
• each stance is subject to a vote of approval by the network
• a stance is accepted if it gathers at least 65% of the votes
• if not, the stance is rejected

2. Call for Action 2015
General objectives on Climate Change
The longer we wait, the costlier it will be: +2°C of the global temperature implies a cost of
150 billions US$/year (2020-2030) and 500 billions US$/year in 2050.
1) Limiting global warming to 2°C by 2100:
• peaking global GHG emissions by 2020 at least
• reducing global GHG emissions by four by 2050:
• -80% for developed countries compared to 1990 levels
• -70% for developing countries compared to 2020 levels
• zero net emission society on the long term
2) Mitigation and adaptation should be considered equally
I New sustainable ways to produce and pursue prosperity
A) Sustainability criteria to progress towards long-term prosperity
1) Following the principles of circular economy
• Responsibility of the consumer: ban on planned obsolescence through better
information, a labelling system guarantying a minimum lifetime of items
• Responsibility of the producers: The cost of recycling should be covered by
manufacturers when lifetime is less than 5 years
• eco-design should be included in Corporate Social Responsibility
2) New indicators of wealth
• Creating a new indicator of wealth: growth should not only be measured by the GDP
B) Raising public awareness on climate change/civil society involvement
• Lack of awareness raising in areas inclined to suffer from climate change: never
heard of climate change(44% in Sub-Saharan Africa, 53% in Asia)
• Climate change knowledge shouldn't be limited to scientists, policy-makers and
lobbyists but shared with farmers, engineers, economists…
• Providing courses on sustainability and climate change at all levels
• Increasing media coverage concerning climate-related issues and sustainable
development
• Improving youth involvement in the decision-making process
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3. Call for Action 2015
C) Climate Finance: transition towards a low-carbon economy
Currently: a lack of investment in low-carbon projects
1) Public finance
• Currently: 331$ billions (World Bank) but half of what is required
• Limiting global warming to 2°C requires approximately US$ 1 trillion investment a
year until 2050
• Increasing climate-related investment, subsidies for clean energy and tax on carbon
2) Private finance
• Helping investors overcome perceived risks attached to sustainable projects
• Regulating finance to achieve a low-carbon world
• Better consideration of long-term issues in the decision-making process
• Context of fossil fuels depletion, development of low carbon technologies
• Green and climate bonds
3) Divestment: investments of today shape our future
• 75% of fossil fuels reserves must stay in the ground (IPCC)
• No more investments in fossil fuels: financing research and deployment of low
carbon/ sustainable technologies
• Placing endowments in environmentally responsible assets
• Stop receiving funds from intensive carbon activities
4) A price on carbon: addressing market failures
• Putting into place a carbon tax or a cap-and-trade system:
◦ stick: drive agents behavior
◦ carrot: foster innovation on low carbon technologies and process
• A price on carbon: 40$/ per ton of CO2 would include the following damages (a
lower agricultural productivity, human health, indirect damages caused by flood risk)
D) Energy efficiency and renewable energy
1) Renewable energy
• Promoting and prioritizing research on these energies sources that create job
opportunities, insure energy security, development, and preserve air and soil quality
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4. Call for Action 2015
• Target: doubling the percentage of renewables by 2030
2) Energy efficiency
• More investment
• Need for legally-binding standards
3) Fracking or hydraulic fracturation
• Ban current unconventional methods of natural gas extraction
4) Nuclear energy
• (+): low carbon type of energy, high energy
• (-) inherent risks, accidents, radioactive waste management
• Anticipating old nuclear plant dismantlement and investing in radioactive waste
management
E) Agriculture
1) Agro-ecology and sustainable farming
• Facts: monoculture + chemical => GHG and environmental damages (biodiversity,
human health)
• Actions: developing alternatives: organic food associated with polyculture; agro-
ecology and permaculture
• Reducing waste and packaging
• Supporting local and seasonal food
2) Addressing agriculture-driven land-use
• Interaction between agriculture and climate change: agriculture = 11% of global GHG
emissions in 2010: CO2, CH4 (cows, rice, sheep) and NO2 (fertilizers)
• Non sustainable agriculture => soil erosion, nutrient deficiency, flooding
• Governments should abide by the RIO+20 document that recognizes agriculture
reforms as one of the main pillars against Climate change
II Global Sustainability challenges demanding international cooperation
A) Biodiversity
• +2°C => ¼ of known species are committed to extinction
• Supporting the Nagoya Protocol for biodiversity conservation (2010)
• Create a clearinghouse mechanism: countries could contribute to genetic libraries,
resources on biodiversity
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5. Call for Action 2015
B) Human Security and climate justice
Climate justice defined by Mary Robinson:
• policy-makers and local decision makers Respect and protect human rights
• Support the right to development
• Share benefits and burdens equitably
• Participatory, transparent and accountable decision-making on climate change
• Gender equality and equity
• Education as empowerment of people, especially young people.
1) Ecocide= damage on natural landscape, disruption/loss of ecosystems
• Currently nearly impossible to qualify a damage as an ecocide: cumulative definition
restrained to war times
• CliMates supports the End Ecocide campaign
• Proposal: adding the notion of ecocide in peace time in national and international
jurisdictions; not only in wartime
2) Providing a status to Environmental refugees
• Drafting a particular law within multilateral agreements (UNFCCC or UNHCR)
• Problem: such a status is limited to inter-state relations whereas displaced people
stay in the same country
• Creating an emergency status in international law to define a protection framework
(// Status by Geneva Convention on Refugees of 1951)
• Not only the UN must tackle the issue but also migration policy-makers and local
decision makers who have better competences and can take actions similar to the
Nansen initiative
3) Intergenerational equity
• Supporting the warsaw Declaration on Intergenerational Equity and Climate Change
• Using a social discount Rate (SDR): cost/benefit analysis of national climate policies
should not exceed 1.4%
• Mentioning the SDR within the iNDC of states (intended Nationally Determined
Contributions)
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