UN Climate Change is conducting a stakeholder consultation to inform the development of the Net Zero Recognition and Accountability Framework.

While businesses, cities and regions have set their sights on net-zero emissions, many face barriers that are limiting their ambition or slowing their progress.

The consultation aims to help to identify these barriers, understand more about how to refine approaches to transparency to promote greater ambition, and enable more consolidation, standardization and comparability.

The consultation will be co-chaired by Dr. Bing Leng, member of the International Sustainability Standards Board, and Sarah Bloom Raskin, Colin W. Brown Distinguished Professor of the Practice at the Duke University School of Law, and will run until the UN Climate Conference (COP28) at the end of the year.

The consultation is the main stakeholder engagement process for UN Climate Change’s first draft implementation plan of its Recognition and Accountability Framework.

It builds on the work underpinning the Integrity Matters report of the Secretary-General’s Expert Group on Net-Zero pledges, which set a clear and ambitious direction of travel for credible net-zero pledges by firms and municipalities, backed up by concrete near-term actions and transition plans.

The consultation aims to hear from as many leaders and voices as possible, from key sectors and all regions, including through virtual town hall discussions to be convened in October and November.