Summary
Day two of Climate Week NYC saw President Joe Biden attend the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). Biden reflected on the accomplishments of his climate and clean energy agenda in what is likely his final address to the U.N. as president. He didn’t introduce new policies but reinforced America’s commitment to multilateralism while addressing growing global tensions.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan also attended events around the UNGA on Tuesday. He spoke with Politico and championed Harris as his choice for president due to Trump’s withdrawal once again from the Paris climate accord and rhetoric around women and immigrants.
Notably, Climate Week NYC has attracted over 100,000 attendees exceeding COP29’s expected turnout of 40,000. This is couched within widespread concerns about host nation Azerbaijan’s human rights record and fossil fuel ties – Climate Action Tracker said Azerbaijan is making “critically insufficient” efforts in tackling its own contribution to global warming.
The COP29 president-designate Mukhtar Babayev appeared at the Global Renewables Summit on Tuesday to lay out an agenda, involving a target to increase the capacity of energy storage six-fold, reaching 1,500 gigawatts by 2030.
The UNEP Finance Initiative published a new report, Call to Action to Governments to Respond with Urgency on Systemic Climate Risk, a reminder to policymakers to act decisively and urgently to manage systemic risk, by committing to and implementing, national policy reforms consistent with 1.5°C carbon budgets and development pathways.
Carbon Markets Spotlight Continued
Carbon markets continue to divisively take centre stage at Climate Week NYC.
The Biden administration threw its weight behind offsets as many experts express their caution around credibility.
Morgan Stanley Capital International’s CEO (MSCI Inc.), Henry Fernandez, argued there is a need to include carbon credits in the palette of products at the disposal of corporations trying to reduce their reported carbon footprint. MSCI estimates that the market for carbon credits shrank 22% last year to just $1.1 billion. The firm announced its new carbon credits rating product last week and is in the process of assessing 4,000 projects. Analysis to date suggests that just 5% of those projects can be considered high quality.
We heard from buyers and suppliers in the fast-growing Carbon Dioxide Removals (CDRs) space at Puro.Earth’s CDR Summit. There was a lot of positivity in the room around the significant growth seen in CDRs in the past two years – tenfold since 2022.
At EcoAct’s Voluntary Carbon Markets (VCM) seminar we heard about the positive role of integrity measures – (VCMI and ICVCM) in reinventing the VCM with a higher bar to entry, but ultimately creating a clearer market that is more coherent for buyers to engage with.
SustainCERT discussed its Value Chain Initiative, focused on bringing together some of the world’s largest companies, leading civil society actors, and internationally recognised climate frameworks to collectively focus on defining best practices for Scope 3 emission reductions and removals at scale. It does this by aligning carbon accounting across company value chains in-line with SBTi pathways.
Corporate Accountability: From Net-Zero Pledges to Tangible Action
We attended Axios House’s Sustainable Business sessions where reporters Niala Boodhoo, Ben German and Hope King interviewed business leaders.
Christoph Gebald of Climeworks discussed the bipartisan nature of carbon removal and argued that large energy emitters need to sit at the table to scale carbon removal.
Ryan Gellert defined Patagonia as a “responsible company” rather than a “sustainable company”, underpinned by his belief that by operating within the business sector, they can be a model for thinking about the role and responsibility of business differently.
Corporate executives have generally prioritised Climate Week NYC and view it as a prime networking opportunity. “It’s not about the panels—the real work gets done in the meetings, roundtables, and impromptu conversations,” said Barry Parkin, chief sustainability officer at Mars.
Climate Risk Disclosure – Regulatory Compliance and Market Incentives
As regulatory frameworks for climate-related financial disclosures continue to tighten globally, the conversation explored how financial institutions can better comply with new regulations.
Participants, including representatives from the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and CDP, discussed the increasing importance of ESG reporting standards. With the European Union’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) set to come into full effect in 2025, there was consensus on the need for banks and asset managers to integrate climate risk assessments into their decision-making processes.
Financial executives highlighted that firms are increasingly being held accountable for their climate promises. This is particularly important as regulators globally are pushing for mandatory disclosures that go beyond voluntary commitments, making transparency essential for investor trust.
Soundbites
‘‘I’ll be blunt: if more developing countries don’t see more of this growing deluge of climate investment, we will quickly entrench a dangerous two-speed global transition’, said Simon Stiell, U.N. Climate Change Executive Secretary at the Sustainable Investment Forum. “We need a new climate finance deal…Serious progress is needed urgently, both at climate negotiations in Baku this year and by G20 ministers who are shareholders in the big development banks.”
“The VCM has a critical potential to leverage important sources of capital and finance for private action, in particular emissions reductions and removals across emerging markets in the developing world,” Mark Kenber, VCMI’s executive director said. “This market has seen numerous inflection points. But what’s different about this transition is it’s bigger and is more in the public eye…The stakes are higher in this transition.”
“At a time of need to galvanise public and political actions that can minimise the harm of climate change on people and the planet, this study underscores the urgent need for a shift in how we communicate about climate change,” said Adam Lake, Head of Communications at Climate Group NA, as he discusses new data analysis connecting climate change to health-related impacts.
Kitty van der Heijden, Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Executive Director, Partnerships, UNICEF said “I’m tired of having to tell people how urgent this problem is. Children suffer the most and carry a large percent of the burden. The solution? Gender empowerment. It’s 2024, It’s Time to mobilise the world, to change the world…Bringing children in, is a key part of the recipe for a resilient economy and for going forward at an accelerated pace.”
“What happens in America is the metronome … that sets the beat of what happens across the globe,” the three-term mayor said. “It sets the beat for how other politicians behave in an election campaign.” Sadiq Khan, London Mayor, spoke with Politico in New York.
“We’re better positioned than other nations of the world to promote a clean energy future,” Joe Biden told the Bloomberg Global Business Forum during Climate Week NYC. “In fact, it’s the perfect time to go big.”
Useful Articles/ Sources
- Newsweek: Biden Seeks to Burnish Environmental Legacy at Climate Week NYC
- Politico: Carbon markets capture the spotlight at Climate Week NYC
- Politico: ‘The rest of the world is watching.’ London mayor cautions Americans against reelecting Trump.
- ESG News: Climate Week NYC Outshines COP29: Convenience and Leadership Drive Attendance Shift
Announcements/ Corporate Activity
- Financial Times: Energy-hungry tech groups express interest in US-led carbon credits scheme
- ESG News: Schneider Electric Drives Global Decarbonization at Climate Week NYC 2024
- ESG News:Bloomberg Expands Climate Solutions to Enhance Corporate Transition Risk Assessments and Net Zero Alignment
Looking Ahead: Day 3 Themes
Climate Week is holding its first ever “VCM Day” on Wednesday, sponsored by Bloomberg Philanthropies and featuring Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo and U.N. Environment Programme Executive Director Inger Andersen along with other corporate and government officials.
UK Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, is in New York today to address the United Nations Security Council after his speech at the Labour conference. During his two-day visit to NYC, the PM will be focused on the Ukraine, Middle East, and Sudan conflicts, arguing that Britain must take a leadership role on war, poverty and climate change to mitigate the inevitable “rebound” of related issues — from economic pain to “migration flows on an unprecedented scale.”
Starmer recorded a mini-broadcast round of interviews in Liverpool after his speech on Tuesday which played out across UK broadcast media this morning, including the 8.10 a.m. slot on the BBC Radio 4 Today program. We expect more media from Starmer later today as he has a substantial round of sit-down interviews planned in New York with broadcast political editors. This last set of interviews is embargoed until 5 p.m. — the same time he’ll begin addressing the U.N. Security Council.
Day three is expected to focus on carbon markets, decarbonising energy systems, and the growing influence of climate-aligned regulation. Financial professionals should prepare for discussions on the role of regulation in scaling climate finance, and how financial institutions can align with evolving global frameworks.
Stay tuned for more updates and insights!
