Climate finance and fossil fuel phaseouts in focus at New York Climate Week
Thousands of policymakers, investors, activists, and executives are gathering in New York for the 16th annual Climate Week, held under the slogan “It’s time."
Speakers at the event’s opening ceremony were careful to tread the difficult balance between stressing the urgency of the need to decarbonise whilst not succumbing to defeatism. Helen Clarkson, CEO of Climate Group, opened the week-long event by highlighting the importance of the upcoming COP29 summit, tacitly acknowledging the limited expectations many climate activists have for the upcoming gathering.
“There is a lot of talk already about COP30 next year in Belém as by then we will be receiving the new commitments from countries under the Paris Agreement, but we can’t just focus on next year and skip this year; there is critical work that has to happen at COP29,” she warned.
One person who did not appear to get the brief on optimism was former US secretary of State John Kerry, who warned that countries were failing to deliver on their promises to phase out fossil fuels. Kerry, who now acts as climate envoy for the current US administration, acknowledged that this included the US and advocated for a continuation of the pause on exporting US liquefied natural gas.
The event’s organisers have highlighted three key focus points, explained Champa Patel, executive director, Governments & Policy, at Climate Group. These are the acceleration of climate finance, a push towards greater accountability on the delivery of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), and the demands to phase out fossil fuels.
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The question of transition finance and planning was high on the agenda of asset owners, including Travis Antoniono, investment manager at CalPERS, and OMERS’ Katharine Preston, vice president of Sustainable Investing, discussing how to take stock of corporate climate transition plans.
The event, which coincides with the UN General Assembly Meeting in New York, often serves as a launchpad for important corporate or political policy announcements. Swedish car giant Volvo used the event last year to commit to phasing out diesel cars, and this year, the UN General Assembly adopted a “Pact for the Future,” which included a commitment to transition away from fossil fuels.
Meanwhile, the US Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced the launch of new guidelines on the use of derivatives in the voluntary carbon credit market.
