Short answers, pulled from the story.
Sustainable Development Goal 13 is one of 17 goals adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015, with an official mission to take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts. It has five targets, each with a 2030 deadline, covering disaster resilience, policy integration, education, climate finance, and support for least developed countries and small island developing states.
With the pledges submitted under the 2015 Paris Agreement, global warming would still reach roughly 2.7 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, despite nations agreeing to keep warming "well under 2 degrees Celsius." Many climate impacts are already underway at the current 1.2 degrees of warming, and scientists warn that the Greenland ice sheet is one tipping point within reach of additional warming.
Under Target 13.a, developed countries pledged to jointly mobilize 100 billion dollars per year by 2020 to help developing nations address climate change. A 2020 UN report found that actual climate finance flows were relatively small compared to the investment needed for a low-carbon, climate-resilient transition. The commitment runs through 2025.
By April 2020, 118 countries and territories had adopted national disaster risk reduction strategies aligned with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, up from just 48 when the Sendai Framework first launched. This progress is measured by Indicator 13.1.2, which serves as a formal bridge between SDG 13 and the Sendai Framework.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused roughly a 6 percent reduction in projected 2020 greenhouse gas emissions, but a 2022 publication found the direct long-term climate impact was negligible as emissions rebounded quickly. Travel restrictions disrupted UNFCCC processes and planned deliverables, with scientists in developing countries facing steeper challenges due to weaker communication infrastructure and higher work demands.
SDG 13 does not directly address the link between climate vulnerability and migration flows, and contains no indicator for population displacement by weather-related disasters. Researchers argue that government-led community relocation, absent from all SDG 13 indicators, should be tracked as a growing adaptive response to climate change.