Climate action refers to efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-induced impacts. It is a critical issue that affects every country on every continent, disrupting national economies and affecting lives. Climate action is intrinsically linked to all 16 of the other Goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The United Nations has established Sustainable Development Goal 13 to limit and adapt to climate change. The official mission statement of this goal is to "Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts by regulating emissions and promoting developments in renewable energy".

To address climate change, countries adopted the Paris Agreement to limit global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius. Climate action requires mobilizing tens of billions of dollars annually to address the needs of developing and developed countries in moving towards a low-carbon economy and building resilience and adaptation.

The effects of climate change are already visible and will be catastrophic unless we act now. Without action, the world’s average surface temperature is projected to rise over the 21st century and is likely to surpass 3 degrees Celsius this century. The poorest and most vulnerable people are being affected the most.

Climate action involves a wide range of issues, and Sustainable Development Goal 13 has five targets which are to be achieved by 2030. They cover the following:

• Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related disasters
• Integrate climate change measures into policies and planning
• Build knowledge and capacity to meet climate change
• Improve education, awareness-raising and human and institutional capacity with respect to climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning
• Promote mechanisms to raise capacity for effective climate change-related planning and management in least developed countries and small island developing States

Governments, organizations, and individuals can take climate action by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, promoting renewable energy, improving energy efficiency, and building resilience to climate change impacts.