At the second annual One Planet Summit, hosted by by French President Emmanuel Macron, United Nations Secretary General António Guterres, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim and U.N. Special Envoy for Climate Action Michael R. Bloomberg, a group of business and political leaders met to discuss finance behind climate action. The annual meeting is part of Climate Week NYC and takes place as leaders from around the world come together in New York for the seventy-third session of the U.N. General Assembly.
One Planet Summit accomplished reviewed “commitments made at the first One Planet Summit on December 12, 2017, and will further accelerate the implementation of the Paris Agreement by putting finance in service of climate action,” according to a press release. The goal of the summit is to “strengthening multilateral collaboration, building trust between public and private actors, to ensure a collective response to the climate change,” a press release stated.
“We are not here just to speak but to be accountable,” Macron said. “Here we will see what is working and what is not working. What we need is action.”
The One Planet Summit brought the likes of 40 political and business leaders together to discuss the initial 30 initiatives announced at the first annual meeting in December 2017 and announce new commitments where several business leaders and politicians pledged their commitment to lower greenhouse gas emissions.
According to EcoWatch, commitments included:
- The World Bank pledged to launch a $1 billion platform for developing battery storage technology.
- Google said it would launch a tool to measure greenhouse gas emissions from traffic and use Google Earth to measure the solar capacity of world cities.
- Bloomberg announced that he would help organize a Wall Street Network on Sustainable Finance to encourage more climate and environment financing in U.S. markets, according to a press release provided by Bloomberg Philanthropies.
- BlackRock promised to help craft an investment fund to finance renewable energy and low-carbon transport in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Likewise, EcoWatch reported, politicians also introduced new climate initiatives:
- The European Commission promised 25 percent of the next EU budget, 320 billion euros, to climate initiatives, according to the same press release.
- The EU also joined with France and New Zealand to launch the Joint Pacific Initiative for Biodiversity, Climate Change and Resilience to the tune of 20 million euros.
“New York City has long been a place where the world comes together to solve big problems – and climate change is one of the most urgent,” Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg Philanthropies and former mayor of New York City, said. “Since last year’s summit, we’ve taken important steps forward to reduce carbon emissions and improve people’s lives, by cleaning the air, growing the economy, and creating jobs. This year’s summit is a chance to accelerate that progress and spread the health and economic benefits of climate action to more people around the world.”
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