The inaugural assembly of ACT Alliance in Arusha, Tanzania in 2010 resolved that climate change was a threat to lives, livelihoods and the whole of creation, and as a result it was identified as a priority for the Alliance’s advocacy work at all levels. Since then, ACT Alliance has engaged in many climate justice initiatives, including advocacy and campaigns in the context of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) as well as at the national and community levels. ACT Alliance members and forums across the world continue to advocate for climate justice, particularly in support for community resilience in developing countries, reduced greenhouse gas development, increased accessibility of new and additional climate finance and climate action that is guided by including principles of human rights, equity, intergenerational equity, the full and meaningful participation of youth and gender justice.

Until 2015, ACT Alliance’s advocacy and capacity building efforts on climate change was primarily geared towards enabling member organizations, forums and partners to implement effective advocacy and campaigns towards the UNFCCC negotiations, particularly in the lead up to the Paris Agreement. Since the adoption of the Paris Agreement, the Alliance’s advocacy focuses on enabling national level implementation of the Agreement.

As an alliance, we believe that the Paris Agreement provides a significant policy framework that has the potential to guide ambitious action to address climate change and its impacts. The goal of keeping global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius (°C) or well below 2°C will require the mobilization of climate action and its means of implementation at national levels. Simultaneously, significant efforts will need to be made to build global resilience to the impacts of climate change by shifting economies and societies towards a low greenhouse gas emissions development pathway. Therefore, the implementation of the Paris Agreement must be linked to the transformation of all economic sectors and should be done in conjunction with the implementation of other key policy frameworks, particularly the Sustainable Development Goals and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.

This Toolkit is designed to support the advocacy actions of ACT Alliance members, forums and partners at the national level. It focuses on the three instruments mandated by the Paris Agreement, namely; the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) and the mid-century long-term low greenhouse gas emissions development strategies or Long-term Strategies (LTS). ACT Alliance defines advocacy as ‘a strategic set of activities designed to influence decision-makers, laws and regulations, structures and practices to address the root causes of injustice.’ Advocacy may be conducted publicly or privately, and can include policy research, campaigning and public events, lobbying and policy dialogue, media work and the production of materials to support advocacy in its various forms. ACT Alliance encourages all climate advocacy work to be guided by the principles of climate justice.

We encourage all of our members and forums to make use of this Toolkit, not only for advocacy purposes but also for capacity building and to facilitate internal discussions and reflections to ensure that specific national contexts are integrated into our global climate justice work.