UN climate leader urges action to match promises at Climate Week NYC

By Katy Daigle and Simon Jessop

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Speakers at Climate Week NYC delivered a clear message to world leaders on Monday: the global energy transition is happening now and it's happening fast, at the event which brings together leaders, advocates and the U.N. General Assembly.

The U.N.'s top climate official opened a morning session at the annual event by urging the world to turn promises into practical solutions.

“This new era of climate action must be about bringing our process closer to the real economy,” said Simon Stiell, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The premier of Antigua and Barbuda urged wealthy counterparts to speed their efforts, with climate change having become an existential crisis for nations like his.

“For small islands, it turns every storm into a fiscal catastrophe,” Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne said.

LEADERS PRESSED TO SHOW CLIMATE PROGRESS EVEN AS AID IS CUT

World leaders at the U.N. General Assembly this week will be pressed to show progress on climate, particularly after recent cutbacks in development aid as wealthy countries also juggle war and economic stability.

G20 members Britain, Japan and Australia recently announced new climate plans, or Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). More countries are expected to share their updates this week, including China.

"We now look to China, the world's top emitter, to fully commit to the Paris Agreement it helped craft by issuing an NDC that charts a credible path to that country’s goal of net zero before 2060," said John Podesta, former climate advisor to U.S. President Joe Biden.

"This means roughly a 30% emissions reduction, covering all greenhouse gases, by 2035, below peak 2024 levels, which new data demonstrates that they reached."

BENEFITS OF CLEAN ENERGY BOOM 'NOT SHARED BY ALL'

With the U.N. climate summit, COP30, in November, Stiell also took time to celebrate progress that has been made, noting that investment in renewables had increased tenfold in 10 years.

"The clean energy transition is booming across almost all major economies," he said, adding it hit $2 trillion last year.

"But this boom is uneven. Its vast benefits are not shared by all," Stiell said. "Meanwhile, climate disasters are hitting every economy and society harder each year. So we need to step it up fast."

He also said a new global initiative called Build Clean Now would help to fast-track clean industry shifts.

Also on Monday, an alliance working to boost renewables said it plans to spur $7.5 billion in investment toward green energy in developing countries, including India.

CLIMATE CHANGE STILL A 'SYSTEMIC RISK' GLOBALLY

"Despite political debate globally, varying regulations between markets, emerging de-regulation and reports of corporates deprioritizing ESG, climate change remains a critical systemic risk across the world," said Omar Ali, EY Global Financial Services Leader.

A boost to joint decision-making came last week, after countries ratified the High Seas Treaty, which sets into motion the first legal framework for protecting the vast ocean areas that lie beyond any national jurisdiction. 

The treaty contains 75 points covering areas such as protecting, caring for and ensuring responsible use of marine resources, and includes a provision for requiring environmental impact assessments for economic activities in international waters.

WWF International director general Kirsten Schuijt called it a "monumental achievement for ocean conservation" and "a positive catalyst for collaboration across international waters."

(Reporting by Simon Jessop and Katy Daigle; Additional reporting by Valerie Volcovici and Virginia Furness; Editing by Bernadette Baum)