Kigali Declaration calls for more urgent climate action

“Because of human-induced climate change and other human impacts on the environment, the world is in a state of polycrises leading to cascading systemic risk and increasing inequality, with failure to limit global warming being one of the greatest threats to humanity,” it states.

The Kigali Declaration: Climate science for a sustainable future for all was issued as the official outcome of the World Climate Research Progamme’s Open Science conference held in the Rwandan capital in October 2023. The five-day event brought together more than 1400 participants who discussed the current state and further evolution of climate science and the actions urgently needed to mitigate against and adapt to climate change.

The declaration calls on the international community to act with greater urgency to address climate change. Specifically, it calls for decision-makers to uphold commitments to a fair and accelerated process of phasing out fossil fuel energy systems; and to improve climate knowledge and develop climate decision support systems at both global and regional levels. 

It calls upon the climate science community to accelerate and amplify the relevance, impact and benefit of its research for science and society, enabling transformative actions.

It calls upon agencies, governments, and the private sector to substantially increase their multilateral, accessible and equitable investment in the development of actionable climate information, and the implementation of climate adaptation options and loss and damage assessments founded on climate science.

The Kigali Declaration was signed by 734 conference participants. It was drafted by co-chairs Detlef Stammer and Helen Cleugh and other leading scientists, including WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo. 

WMO is one of the co-sponsors of the World Climate Research Programme.