San José, Costa Rica, 10 October 2019 - After three days of panels, high-level discussions and exchanging best practices for climate action, PreCOP25 in San José concluded today with calls for more climate ambition.

The gathering, from 8 to 10 October, saw more than 1,500 attendees, with delegates representing more than 90 countries and more than 60 parallel events with 264 panelists on topics ranging from blue carbon to electric mobility. The event put an additional emphasis on climate finance and the gender agenda as transformational focus areas of climate solutions.

“We are honored to be part of this effort. Climate action is the most important cause of our generation and is therefore worth it. If there is a time to be useful for others, it is now,” said the president of Costa Rica, Carlos Alvarado Quesada, whose country promised to make an unconventional PreCOP.

The gathering provided fresh impetus on the road towards the 25th Conference of the Parties (COP25) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), to be held in Santiago, Chile this December. There, more countries, cities, companies and local governments are expected to increase ambition and present new goals.

Current national climate action plans under the Paris Agreement put the world on a path towards global warming of 3° Celsius, so ambition needs to be urgently raised.

Ovais Sarmad, Deputy Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, said:

“It has been hugely encouraging to hear everyone at PreCOP25 talking about the need to raise ambition on climate action. Governments and all stakeholders have heard the message of young people to protect their futures loud and clear, along with the message of science which states that time is running out and we have only a very narrow window of opportunity to act.”

“At COP25 in December, we are looking forward to more governments, and also more cities, regions and businesses announcing action plans that are in line with science and respond to the calls for increased action,” he added.

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