New York climate march sets tone for week of UN talks

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Thousands of climate activists took to the streets of New York on Sunday to urge President Joe Biden to stop approving new fossil fuel projects, just as world leaders gather this week for the United Nations General Assembly.

The demonstration was supported by more than 700 global climate organizations, which have also supported related protests in many other countries. The demonstration comes ahead of the United Nations’ first one-day “Climate Ambition Summit” on Wednesday, which is unrelated to the main talks.

While Biden will travel to New York on Tuesday to address the U.N. General Assembly, U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Friday that the president has no plans to attend a U.N. summit dedicated to climate.

However, Sullivan said the president would use his visit to New York to advance “American interests and values on issues such as climate change and global support for Ukraine.”

The march in New York kicked off a broader week of climate action, with business executives, politicians and activists descending on the city for a series of meetings and summits.

Speakers include Ugandan justice activist Vanessa Nakate, US billionaire Michael Bloomberg, new World Bank President Ajay Banga; Executives from technology and clean energy companies, as well as environment ministers from many southern countries from Africa to South America and throughout the world. From Belgium north to Canada.

The UN General Assembly and its dedicated climate summit are the last major meetings of world leaders before the UN COP28 climate review in Dubai in December.

The world has experienced its hottest season on record, with the world’s top scientists warning that global warming is “likely” to reach a 1.5°C rise since pre-industrial times in the short term.

This is different from the 1.5°C long-term average temperature rise target set by the 2015 Paris climate agreement. On this basis, the world has already warmed by 1.1°C.

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, signed by governments around the world, concludes that humanity has the tools to contain and adapt to climate change, but political “commitment” is an obstacle to progress.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the architect of this week’s climate summit, warned in July that the world faced a new era of “global boiling”.

Still, world leaders have struggled to agree on climate progress at recent multilateral meetings. People familiar with the G20 climate ministers meeting in July told the Financial Times that efforts by China and Saudi Arabia to discuss greenhouse gas emissions targets were derailed, frustrating diplomats from other countries.

At COP28, negotiators from nearly 200 countries will need to work together to agree on a so-called global emissions stocktake, the first since the Paris Agreement, and agree on funding arrangements for climate change-related loss and damage.

Selwyn Hart, the UN secretary-general’s special adviser on climate action, told delegates last week that this week’s gathering is intended to “showcase the actions of the first movers and doers” in mitigating climate change and adapting to a warming planet.

The agenda includes discussions on how to finance adaptation to climate change. A meeting of island nations vulnerable to rising sea levels will be held within the framework of the United Nations later this week.

“Those who have contributed the least (to climate change) are paying the heaviest price, so we are at a point where it is absolutely clear that we need to act with great urgency,” Hart told reporters on Friday.

“It is clear that we need to act with great urgency . . . to accelerate the pace of decarbonization to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement.”