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or citizen-led. Indeed, 2017 has been marked by several extremely violent hurricanes, long periods of drought and heavy flooding, making it what will probably be a record year in terms of the human, social and economic costs of natural disasters , according to the UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme). For on top of what is already a tragic immediate outcome, these extreme weather phenomena have long-term consequences that are just as drastic according to an Oxfam report published on 7 November 2017, 23.5 million people were displaced by a natural disaster in 2016. These facts are enough to sway climate sceptics (at least we may hope so), especially as denial of the man-made causes of climate change is becoming less and less tenable.

At the beginning of November 2017, US federal agencies published (with the agreement of the White House) a report that unequivocally links climate change to manmade pollution and estimates that extreme weather events have cost the United States $1.1 trillion dollars since 1980.

Although most stakeholders are taking action in the fight against climate change, things are obviously not moving anywhere near quickly enough. In the lead up to the COP23 conference held in Bonn from 7 to 17 November 2017, several reports raised the alarm once again:

--> The World Meteorological Organisation s provisional statement published on 6 November stated that the global average surface temperature for the first nine months of the year was approximately 1.1°C above the pre-industrial era.

--> the latest report by the United Nations Environment Programme estimates a rise of over 3°C by the end of the century, describing as catastrophic the gap between countries pledged commitments for cutting carbon emissions and what remains to be done to meet Paris Agreement targets. The climatologist Jean Jouzel, former vice president of the IPCC s scientific working group, describes the situation as very alarming .

--> finally, the Global Carbon Project s annual report estimates that after three years of stability, CO2 emissions from industry and fossil fuels are likely to increase by about 2% in 2017 compared with 2016.

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So this is no time for satisfaction. We must urgently step up our actions. Now, in this period between COP23 and COP24, it is vital that governments take their targets to another level. We must restore the role of the Global Action Agenda, which enabled public and private stakeholders to come together to build proactive policies to cut carbon emissions. It is time to step up our actions the UNEP believes that proactive policies to cut carbon emissions can still reverse the trajectory.

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