From 12-14 September, over 4,500 local, regional and business leaders gathered on the east coast of the US for the Global Climate Action Summit convened by California Governor Jerry Brown.
392 investors, with $32 trillion under management, will work to ensure a low-carbon transformation of the global economy with the urgency required to meet the challenge.
The summit also included UN special envoy for climate action and former mayor of New-York City Michael Bloomberg and Miguel Arias Cañete, European Commissioner for Climate and Energy, launching a new partnership to boost Europe’s clean energy ambitions. The partnership will build on the Commission’s platform for coal regions that find themselves in transition. Launched in December 2017, the tool provides economic and technological support for 41 coal-dependent regions located in 12 European countries. With this new partnership, the Bloomberg Foundation will fund research projects aim to improve the platform’s database and enable more targeted actions.
Regional, local and business leaders, referred to as ‘non-state actors’ in UN jargon, are proving crucial to climate action as UN talks between countries over the definition of a rulebook to apply the Paris Agreement are currently embroiled in technical struggles. They also show that they can overtake unambitious, if not opposing, national governments in meeting the Paris Agreement target as a report presented 13 September by Jerry Brown and Michael Bloomberg finds. It finds that US cities, states, businesses and market forces are poised to trim carbon emissions to 17% below 2005 levels by 2025. That compares with the 26% to 28% US commitment under the Paris deal. These stakeholders are part of America’s Pledge, a climate action group with more than 3,000 US cities, states, businesses and other groups attempting to deliver on America’s Paris goal, despite president Donald Trump’s announcement to withdraw the US from the agreement. America’s Pledge now claims it is within “striking distance” of fulfilling the US climate commitment. The group is optimistic to gather enough momentum at every level of society to hinder federal efforts to stop progress on reducing emissions.
The call to action will be handed over to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres during climate week, which will take place in New York from 24 to 30 September. On Friday, it was handed over to Executive Secretary of UNFCCC Patricia Espinosa.