Legislators from 100 countries to place national legislation at heart of a 2015 global agreement on climate change

The 2nd World Summit of Legislators, hosted by the Mexican Congress and organised by the Global Legislators Organisation (GLOBE), met in the plenary of the Chamber of Deputies 6th-8th June.

Senior legislators from over 100 countries politically test a new model for an international climate change agreement that has national legislation at its heart. The legislators debated the principles of what makes good climate legislation on mitigation, adaptation and forests/REDD+ as well as natural capital accounting.

The Summit produced a Resolution document which included some of the following points:

On climate change, legislators recognised that well-informed climate legislation can bring significant national and local co-benefits, including strengthened energy security, improved health, reduced disaster risk, increased access to sustainable energy and investment into clean and domestic energy sources, including renewable energy, the creation of high-quality new jobs and better air quality. They committed to:

•Undertake a comprehensive assessment of our existing national legislative responses to address and prepare for the impacts of climate change to ensure they are consistent with the international goal of limiting global average temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius

•Where appropriate, strengthen the legislative responses in advance of the 21st Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC in 2015, including the consideration of carbon pricing and incorporating natural capital accounting concepts in national accounting procedures

•Where already in existence, ensure the effective scrutiny of the implementation of climate legislation

•Debate the role of national legislation in a new climate change agreement and whether countries should be required to put their commitments into national laws