A coalition of Sub-national Governments that aims to achieve greenhouse gas…

Concept

"Sub-national governments" means governing bodies below the national level — states, provinces, regions, and cities. A sub-national climate coalition is a voluntary network of such governments that commit, independent of their national governments, to deep cuts in greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions, typically aligned with keeping global warming well below 2°C.

Application

The defining alliance of states and regions pledging GHG mitigation in line with the below-2°C target is the Under2 Coalition. Launched in 2015 (originally as the Under2 Memorandum of Understanding) and coordinated by the Climate Group, it brings together state, regional and provincial governments that commit to cut their emissions to net-zero by 2050 — the "under 2" referring directly to the under-2°C warming goal. So the coalition described in the stem is the Under 2 Coalition.

Contrast with the other choices

• EP100 — a corporate (business) initiative on energy productivity, also run by the Climate Group, but its members are companies, not sub-national governments.

• Kyoto — evokes the Kyoto Protocol, a treaty among national governments under the UNFCCC; "Kyoto Coalition" is not the name of a sub-national alliance.

• "Climate Coalition" — a generic-sounding label, not the recognised name of the states-and-regions GHG-mitigation network.