It’s Time – for the highlights of Climate Week NYC | Climate Week

Climate Week NYC 2024 has come to a close. We’re incredibly proud of this week, which was bigger than ever, with 900 events in total – 50 percent more than last year. We felt an enormous positivity throughout the whole week and the city, a feeling that we can do this, together.  

So, let’s do it as CEO Helen Clarkson said in her opening speech at the Opening Ceremony on Sunday: It’s Time to think about the crucial decisions and action we need to start taking right now, to leave COP30 with the world in better shape. 

Let’s have a look at some of the highlights of the week, that once again happened on the back of a summer filled with extremely dire climate events that could be seen throughout the week, with heavy flooding in Japan and Europe.  

We kicked off the week with a strong call from our CEO Helen Clarkson, to change direction and take action based on five principles: 

• It's Time to put people first - the transition must be just. 
• It's Time to pay up - the Global North has a historical responsibility to free up long overdue climate finance, to ensure people living in climate hotspots are protected and resilient.
• It's Time to listen to citizens - around 80% of people globally want their governments to take stronger action on climate. They know what needs to happen and that it needs to happen fast.
• It's Time to be honest with ourselves - we need to be honest about the role of technology in solving climate change. 
• It's Time to have the difficult discussions about fossil fuels – how doe we solve the geopolitics of the last barrel of oil,  and how do we get fossil fuel companies to actually shift their business models?  

Followed by The Honourable Philip E. Davis, the prime minister of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, a leader on the frontline of the climate crisis: “I watch the tides rise higher each year, feel the storms grow stronger and witness first- hand the relentless advance of a warming world. But nothing could have prepared me for the news that shook us all – for the first time global warming has exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius for an entire year.” 

With this stark warning , solution-focused speakers took to the stage such as The Right Honourable Patricia Scotland, Commonwealth Secretary-General , The Right Honourable Dame Jacinda Ardern, Former Prime Minister of New Zealand, Espen Barth Eide, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Norway, Benoit Bazin, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Saint-Gobain, Will Jackson-Moore, Global Sustainability Leader at PwC, and John Podesta, Senior Advisor to the President, International Climate Policy. To watch all speeches and discussions of that first day, see here.  

And then there was the launch of Climate Group’s Global To-Do List of course, a list of seven actions governments and businesses can start taking right now, that will see results in the coming year and put the world on track to 2030. You can find here the powerful video played at the Opening Ceremony.

Some of the major announcements 

As always, many organizations use Climate Week NYC to launch initiatives of come with major announcements. This year, they ranged from new research to climate litigation and everything in between.  

• Professor Tim Lenton from the University of Exeter launched new research in partnership with Climate Group all about cascading tipping points. The report highlighted how governments can start a global cascade of “positive tipping points” to cut prices and carbon emissions by using mandates to switch investment from polluting fossil fuels to clean technologies.  
   
• In a press briefing during The Hub Live, California Attorney General Rob Bonta, alongside actor Lou Diamond Philips, announced he is suing ExxonMobil for what he called a ‘decades-long campaign of deception that caused and exacerbated the global plastics pollution crisis’.  
   
• U.S. Steel and Responsible Steel had a first-of-its-kind certification announcement. US Steel is now the first steel company in the world that produces ResponsibleSteel Certified Steel at its Big River facility in Osceola, Arkansas. It’s expected this will set a clear example for the critical decarbonization of steel production.   
   
• Forty of the nation’s leading green banks, collectively responsible for more than $10 billion in new investments last year alone, announced a new partnership to coordinate a historic wave of clean energy investment and provide climate solutions to every corner of America.  
   
• The IEA, IMEO and EDF presented framework for tracking oil and gas emissions progress. The report walks through a comprehensive new framework for supporting and reporting progress by oil and gas companies around the world towards the emissions and flaring targets they have set, including through the Oil and Gas Decarbonization Charter launched at COP28.  
   
• The Steel and Concrete Transformation - Climate Group and Ramboll launched a report which reveals that close to 50% of global businesses that were surveyed for this report are prepared to pay a premium for lower emission steel and concrete.   
   
• Asahi launched its first ever Sustainability Innovation Project. The project is designed to unlock breakthrough innovation on the path to net zero and drive sustainable, impact-driven business growth. 
   
• An open letter by the Global Renewables Alliance published an open letter urging world leaders to set ambitious, specific and actionable renewable energy targets in the upcoming NDC revisions due in February under the Paris Agreement due n.  
   
• The IEA published a report that looks at what implementing the full package of energy pledges made at COP28 means in practice for the global energy system and emissions. From Taking Stock to Taking Action: How to implement the COP28 energy goals also explores the risks of partial implementation, which would jeopardise international efforts to limit global warming to 1.5 °C. And it discusses how countries can integrate the COP28 goals into their next round of targets under the Paris Agreement, emphasizing the importance of translating these objectives into domestic energy policies.  
   
• Climate Group announced an exciting new initiative around 24/7 carbon-free electricity, together with several of the founding partners of the 24/7 Carbon-Free Coalition. Innovative leaders have taken the ambitious step to explore reducing more emission​s​ by ​transitioning their ​businesses​ to​ be powered by 24/7 carbon-free electricity – every hour, every day, sourced locally. See here for more information. 

For all photography of the events at the Opening Ceremony and The Hub Live, see here. 

You can, of course, also read back our Live Blog if you want a topline written overview of the three days.

Opening Ceremony 

See below for some of the speaker highlights of the Opening Ceremony:  

Philip E. Davis, Prime Minister of The Bahamas insists, "The old playbooks, familiar arguments are no longer acceptable. The time for complacency is over." 

Secretary-General Patricia Scotland said, "There is power in this room, if we choose to act. It is a choice. Our children and the next generation are waiting on us to save our planet. We can do this." 

Will Jackson-Moore, Global Sustainability Leader at PwC, on overcoming watching the growing cost of climate inaction for business leaders; "Try not to focus too much on the long-term - a lot of no-regret actions can be done now, in the short-term." 

Benoit Bazin, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Saint-Gobain, "75% of our total turnover goes towards sustainable solutions for construction. Since it’s at the core of our corporate strategy, we want to engage all employees. 85%, or 80,000 employees have been trained in sustainability."  

Lorena Dellagiovanna, Chief Sustainability Officer and Chief Human Resources Officer at Hitachi Ltd.  "In terms of climate we have our targets - net zero by 2050 across the whole supply chain." 

Senior Advisor for International Climate Policy to the President of the United States John Podesta: "Since President Biden took office, private companies have announced more than 425 billion dollars in new clean energy projects. More than 270 billion of that has been announced since the IRA, creating more than 330,000 good-paying jobs. Last year, clean energy jobs grew at twice the rate than normal jobs in the economy." 

"The climate phenomena that we were expecting to happen in 10 years from now are already happening today.", said Minister Sonia Guajajara of Indigenous Peoples in Brazil. "Indigenous people around the world are alive. We continue to exist. We continue to fight.", she continues.  

Former President of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern, "No I do not suffer from optimism bias. I have an expectation bias, and so should all of you." 

Watch all three parts of the Opening Ceremony here.  

The Hub Live  

The Hub Live brought a wide array of names and organizations from business, government and civil society to the event, who shared their insights and challenged each other during break-out sessions, panel discussions, and closed-door meetings. Some of the speakers were:  

Andreas Schierenbeck, CEO, Hitachi Energy 

Professor Celeste Saulo, Secretary-General, World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) 

Benjamin Norbury, Global Climate Lead, AstraZeneca 

Suzanne DiBianca, EVP and Chief Impact Officer, Salesforce 

Preeti Srivastav, Group Head of Sustainability, Asahi  

Sherry Madera, CEO, CDP 

Eugenia Kargbo, Chief Heat Officer of Freetown and Senior Heat Strategist for Africa Freetown City Council/Climate Resilience for All 

Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, Mayor of Freetown, Sierra Leone 

Gillian Martin, Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy, Scottish Government 

Maria Marshall, UNICEF Youth Advocate 

Paulette Frank, Chief Sustainability Officer, Johnson & Johnson 

Ryan Pinder, Attorney General, The Bahamas 

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan 

Jay Inslee, Governor of Washington State 

Christiana Figueres, Founding Partner Global Optimism 

Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary UNFCCC 

Professor Tim Lenton, University of Exeter  

Ali Zaidi, Assistant to the President and National Climate Advisor, The White House 

Abby Davidson Managing Director, ENGIE 

Abanti Sankaranarayanan, EVP – Group Public Affairs, Mahindra Group 

Climate Week NYC events program  

As mentioned, we hit a record at Climate Week NYC, with more than 900 events taking place across all five boroughs of New York City. There’s no way we can be exhaustive, but here are some of the highlights from the week: 

• The Biden-Harris Administration, through a new partnership between the EPA and AmeriCorps, launched the Environmental Justice Climate Corps to create pathways for young people into environmental justice careers while addressing climate challenges in underserved communities.  
   
• Subnational Climate Action Leaders’ Exchange (SCALE) discussed the benefits of multilevel climate governance and action at the NEST Climate Campus. Leading the panel on subnational climate leadership our Executive Director Governments and Policy Champa Patel emphasized: "Vertical integration, bringing together different levels of government is critical, but we also have to crowd in private sector investment to be successful.’ 
   
• The event Climate Change and Flood Risk, hosted by LEAP, explored how climate and data science integration can improve flood risk models and help communities adapt.  
   
• Innovative finance and philanthropy firm LEBEC hosted Matt Damon, co-founder of Water.org and WaterEquity; Amy Dornbusch of AtlasDaughters; Thais Lopez Vogel of VoLo Foundation; Yoca Arditi-Rocha of The CLEO Institute; and Vedika Bhandarkar of Water.org to discuss innovative investment solutions for the global water and climate crises.   
   
• The new short film from Hip Hop Caucus unpacked Norfolk, Virginia's controversial "climate resilience plan" that would tear down public housing and redevelop what is an historic Black community.   

Thank you for joining us for Climate Week NYC. We’d also like to thank our sponsors. Without them, Climate Week NYC would simply not be possible: 

PwC, Saint-Gobain, Hitachi, LTD., Salesforce, L'Oréal Groupe, Siemens, McKinsey Sustainability, Deloitte, Oliver Wyman, ENGIE Impact, Johnson & Johnson, UNICEF USA, Outokumpu Corporation, Mission 2025, British Standards Institution, The Estée Lauder Companies, Boston Consulting Group, Nokia, AXA, Edison International, Meta Platforms, Inc.  

For the full list of our sponsors and partners, see here.