Purpose on Payday- September 2024: Climate Week NYC round-up

“The unofficial climate summit of the year”, as predicted by Bloomberg Green before the week had even kicked off, certainly didn’t disappoint. Having just returned from New York on the red-eye flight, the Big Apple’s green credentials were on full show.

Global attendances were high in the city, with around 1,000 events on the main programme, and thousands more behind closed doors. “Rational optimism” was the mood on the ground, with delegates going here, there and everywhere across Manhattan to discuss climate solutions. There was visibly a lot happening, ranging from summits at conference venues such as the Javits Centre, climate action showcases at iconic locations such as the High Line, to corporate events with views over the city, as seen in the lead photo from Standard Chartered’s US offices. There were also several virtual and hybrid events, making this a truly global event, beyond just the international delegates who had arrived at the city.

What was striking were the constant references to all things data – both on the main stages and around roundtables. The request for more, and better, data has long been the calling from those in the climate transition world – to demonstrate where we are, where we need to go, and all the progress (or lack of) in between. The sense is that now we have largely got as much data as we need, so we need to now use it and ensure it influences  decisions. Use cases from data could range from encouraging people to make certain individual decisions and demonstrating at a granular level what actions lead to what consequences. Or it could be used at an international level to set better, more accurate targets. For corporates, it could also now take climate finance to the next level by providing a sense of reality of what markets can look like, and how financial arrangements could be designed. 

What data certainly does show, pretty comprehensively, is that the world is off track on its environmental targets, and that it is likely to breach many of the upper limits on metrics such as global temperatures and sea level rises. It’s not just the data that is demonstrating this, but also the increasingly challenging weather conditions and patterns happening across the world. 

So it was pertinent the strapline for this year’s week was “It’s Time”. As such is the urgency felt by those who attended Climate Week NYC, action must happen and happen fast. So next up are the two COPs, COP16 and COP29. Much has been made around the fact that COP29 in Azerbaijan is likely to experience a lesser turnout than normal and must instead serve as a transitional COP before COP30 in Brazil. COP30 in 2025 is significant as it marks the next time in the Paris Agreement when signatories must publish their updated Nationally Determined Contributions, each commitment having to be stronger than the last. This takes place on five-year cycles, and so, naturally, COP30 will serve as an important moment for collaboration and negotiation by the countries. 

But we can’t just “skip” the COPs in the middle – each is important to continue the conversations and drive forward the commitments being made. Continuity and annual progress is essential or else COPs will have all the feel of a climate circus, that just gets picked up and moved onto the next location, with no progress being made. There are so many initiatives and ideas that have sparked from COPs, and weeks such as LCAW and CWNYC, we now need to ensure they are implemented, and progress is driven forward. COP29, at the very least, will continue those conversations and not let up the pressure on delivering. 

We are also beginning to see a bit of alignment between the COPs, with COP16 in Columbia experiencing a resurgence in interest this year, likely to be very well attended and placing nature firmly on the international agenda. Previous “biodiversity COPs”, such as COP16 in Canada have been less well attended and less significant than their older equivalents, but that relationship seems to have switcharooed this time around. And it appears to be having an impact going forward too, with the Brazilian leadership already saying that putting a value on nature is to be a key topic at COP30. So we may be seeing the path being laid to combine the two going forward, as is the importance of both climate and nature aligning. After Brazil, COP31 could move onto Australia, a country heavily reliant on extractive industries but with a great opportunity to lead on climate action. 

Closer to home, the UK government will be hosting its Global Investment Summit (GIS) on October 14th. Whilst the UK has its own Climate Week NYC equivalent, London Climate Action Week, the GIS is often where the real money talks and pledges and commitments are made. There was some dissent at the Labour Party Conference that the government is focusing too closely on international money and forgetting about its own financial institutions and funds in the country. I think that New York this week has laid down a benchmark, through harnessing its own industry and corporates, whilst simultaneously attracting the global community to come together to implement. The UK, whilst not able to compete financially with the US (and in particular, with the US’s vast Inflation Reduction Act), has other levers it can pull, such as adjusting planning and regulation to support the transition. London also has one of the oldest and most established financial centres in the world, the Square Mile, that it can lean on, as well as tech and research hubs and institutions that are the envy of the world. It’s important that the UK takes the US’s lead when it comes to leadership events – harnessing home expertise and industry, whilst attracting a global audience, rather than attracting a global audience, at the expense of home expertise.