More global summits in line to bring surge of climate actions

New Delhi, Sep 23 : Just over a week after commitments by investors, business communities and governments to step up actions at the Global Climate Action Summit, another two global dialogues both in New York next week, were the line to push actions towards bolder solutions to tackle climate change, experts said on Sunday.



The opening ceremony of Climate Week New York City, 10th in series, on Monday, attracts CEOs, government ministers, governors, mayors and investors from around the world, while the second One Planet Summit on September 26 will be a crucial step for raising ambitions and accelerating the protection of planet from carbon emissions.

"This year we expect our distinguished speakers to include senior leadership of the UN, global CEOs and national leaders," a spokesperson for Climate Week New York City told IANS on Sunday.

Businesses, cities and states are coming together over this period to step up climate leadership, and will be calling on their peers and governments to do the same - to put the world on-track to achieve the Paris Agreement.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern; Costa Rica President Carlos Alvarado Quesada; Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine; Peru President Martin Vizcarra; and Haiti President Jovenel Moise will attend the opening ceremony of the Climate Week New York City that concludes on September 30.

As well as Brad Smith, President and CLO of Microsoft; Jens Birgersson CEO of Rockwool Group; Jake Yamashita CEO of Ricoh; Francesco Starace CEO of ENEL; Stephen Badger Chairman of Mars; Alexandra Liftman Global Environmental Executive of Bank of America; Paul Coster of JP Morgan; and Fleming Voetmann, Vice President of ICA, will also be present.

One Planet Summit will be co-hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim and UN Special Envoy for Climate Action Michael R.

Bloomberg.

The summit will be held on September 26, following the second annual Bloomberg Global Business Forum and alongside the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly.

"Climate action requires a collective response.

Discipline and ambition are essential. We are going through challenging times, but solutions are everywhere, all over the world. We must act together to foster innovation, boost transformative projects, gather public and private investments, and deliver on our promises for the next generations," Macron said in a statement.

Bloomberg, who is the founder of Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg Philanthropies, added: "Since last year's summit, we've taken important steps forward to reduce carbon emissions and improve people's lives, by cleaning the air, growing the economy, and creating jobs.

This year's summit is a chance to accelerate that progress and spread the health and economic benefits of climate action to more people around the world."

Launched on December 12, 2017, in Paris, the inaugural One Planet Summit gathered more than 4,000 participants to accelerate the implementation of the Paris Agreement and to engage public and private actors in the fight against climate change.

Three years after the historic signing of the Paris Climate Change Agreement, the just concluded Global Climate Action Summit and the upcoming Climate Week New York City and One Planet Summit will confirm the commitment of public and private actors to climate action.

Both climate summits are lined up in run up to the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that will publish a special report on global warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius for policymakers in October.

At the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco, 29 philanthropic communities announced (Dollar) 4 billion over five years to combat climate change, the largest-ever philanthropic investment focused on climate change mitigation.

Likewise, an alliance of more than 60 state/regional, city governments and multinational businesses has committed to a 100 per cent zero emission targets through the ZEV (zero emission vehicle) Challenge.

Mahindra and Mahindra, India's leading manufacturer of utility vehicles and part of the (Dollar) 20.7 billion Mahindra Group, has announced its commitment to become a carbon neutral company by 2040.

So is big emitters like India's Dalmia Cement that has committed to set science-based emissions reduction targets.

The company aims to be carbon negative by 2040.

Almost 400 global companies along with health care providers, cities, states and regions now have 100 per cent renewable energy targets.

This includes nearly 150 major global companies such as Tata Motors and Sony that have joined the RE100 initiative: collective annual revenues of these companies total well over (Dollar) 2.75 trillion and their annual electricity demand is higher than that of Poland, the venue of UN Climate Change's Conference or COP24 to be held from December 2 to 14.

(Vishal Gulati can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in)

--IANS

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Source: IANS