02.10.2024

Was New York Climate Week a success?

The fight against climate change took center stage during Climate Week in New York and the UN General Assembly, which were held jointly, reports Euronews. The events were part of the preparations for COP29, the annual UN climate conference, which this year will take place in November in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Moderated by the non-profit Climate Group, Climate Week 2024's theme of 'It's About Time' put the focus squarely on ensuring a just transition that ensures the benefits of climate action are felt by all.

The cost of climate inaction

Big companies were urged to weigh short-term economic gain against long-term sustainability. The societal cost of climate inaction should also drive state regulation of industries, speakers said.

“Two-thirds of workers are affected by extreme heat – there are costs associated with this. What is needed is the transformation of scientific numbers into impact on society. We must use these figures to convince other stakeholders that inaction will be too costly," said Professor Celeste Saulo, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

Stimulus programs such as the EU Green Deal and the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) are a step in the right direction.

“Since US President Joe Biden took office, private companies have announced more than $425 billion in new clean energy projects. More than $270 billion of that was declared after the IRA, creating more than 330 good-paying jobs. Last year, clean energy jobs grew twice as fast as normal jobs in the economy,” said John Podesta, senior adviser on international climate policy to the President of the United States.

"Businesses need consistency to be able to make long-term investment decisions," said Will Jackson-Moore, global sustainability leader at PwC.

Loss and damage financing for developing countries

Countries that contribute the least to climate change still bear the brunt of it, and speakers at Climate Week called for loss and damage funds to be prioritized.

"Diplomacy is good, but it leads nowhere. The loss and damage fund is not funded and not properly established. Can countries be held responsible for escalating the climate crisis? I am ready to go to The Hague and fight this case,” said Leo Pinder, Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs of the Bahamas.

Sharing the direct impact of warming oceans on his island nation, Pinder added:

"Our fish stocks are running out. This has a big impact on the Bahamians who now have no trade. Do we need to retrain them? This is a legitimate tragedy. Bigger countries ignore and don't care about our problem.”

U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii also spoke strongly about the loss and damage, saying that the recipients of funds should have the power to choose how to spend them.

“What is the real purpose of the loss and damage fund? We must constantly help people, not create a specific case study and declare it successful," he believes.

Should fossil fuel companies pay for climate damage?

One way to finance loss and damage and the green transition in low-income countries would be to follow the polluter pays principle, some speakers argued.

“The amount of subsidies received by fossil fuel companies in one year was $7 trillion. This would meet the needs of developing countries to pay for climate change investments every three years," said Laurence Breton, managing director of the European Climate Foundation.

"That should be the bottom line - polluters should pay," Senator Schatz agreed.

Meanwhile, global head of renewable energy for KPMG in Ireland, Mike Hayes, called for a "global reset" of energy systems.

"We need to talk about the positive - which is increasing renewable energy sources instead of phasing out fossil fuels. We also need to think about how public and private can work together – the network must be a public asset,” he stated.

AI isn't the solution, but it can certainly help

The role of technology in the fight against climate change was also a hot topic during Climate Week.

“We need to start thinking about how artificial intelligence can help us accelerate the transition and understand the mechanics of renewable energy development. AI can help with site selection, supply with renewable options and make the whole process much faster. It's not the secret ingredient in the recipe, but it can certainly help and is likely to be a central theme for KPMG at the COP," Hayes added.

AI can also be used to assess whether environmental protection efforts are effective. Blair Sweedin, Global Head of Sustainability at Meta, shared how their AI model, developed with the World Resources Institute, can measure the height of every tree in the world.

"This can be used to validate reforestation efforts and carbon credit projects," he explained.

Talking about the carbon footprint of AI and data centers, he said technology could even be part of the solution.

"Applying AI can reduce the carbon footprint of our data centers by 40 percent," Sweedin added.