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Global Climate Action Summit live blog

More than 500 announcements from thousands of subnational leaders, mobilizing billions of dollars in new commitments to fight climate change. These commitments raise the bar for national governments to step up their own commitments going into the next round of United Nations Paris Agreement negotiations.

A few of the other major announcements from the summit today included:

A comprehensive list of all the commitments made during the summit will be available after the plenary concludes.

And here are some closing quotes from some of the leaders that have been attending or supporting the summit:

29 global philanthropy organizations have pledged $4 billion over the next five years to combat climate change. They are describing this as the largest-ever private investment focused on climate action.

An all-woman panel of leaders convened on the sidelines of GCAS to promote a zero-carbon online summit of world leaders that will take place in November, the brainchild of Dr. Hilda C. Heine, President of the Republic of the Marshall Islands and chair of the Climate Vulnerable Forum. Governments will be invited to virtually attend and offer new climate commitments, paving the way for increasing global ambition to meet climate targets.

The panel was made up of the newly-unveiled “Summit Champions”, high level figures who will be responsible for making the summit a success. They include:

- Christiana Figueres, convener of Mission 2020
- Rachel Kyte, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General of Sustainable Energy for All
- Laurence Tubiana, CEO of the European Climate Foundation
- Jennifer Morgan, Executive Director of Greenpeace International
- Laura Tuck of the World Bank
- Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland
- Loren Lagarda, Philippine Senator
- Naoko Ishii, CEO and Chairman Global Environment Facility (GEF)
- Helen Clark, the former Prime Minister of New Zealand
- Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of Oxfam International

The Summit Champions will ensure heads of government joining the Summit commit to new climate action and ambition.

Here’s an interesting one. Eight big U.S.’s law firms have announced an initiative to deliver free legal services to advance climate action across the globe. Lawyers for a Sustainable Economy will offer pro bono legal assistance to entrepreneurs and community-based non-profits working on sustainability.

According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the world added a record 1.6GW of energy storage in 2017 — a huge increase from 289MW in 2013. This year is expected to easily set a new record, with 1.4GW added in the first half of the year alone.

Taken together, these cities represent 2.5% of global annual emissions — and these new commitments will save 12 gigatonnes CO2e of emissions by 2050. C40 plans to sign up more cities.

Alongside this announcement, C40 have produced a helpful rundown of the various city-level commitments it is coordinating:

Welcome back to the GCAS liveblog, where we are highlighting some of the most significant announcements coming out of a sometimes overwhelming torrent of climate action at the Californian summit.

Last night, California Governor Jerry Brown signed a range of bills boosting aiming to cut emissions from the state’s transport sector from the deck of a hybrid electric ferry — the Enhydra, which plies the waters of the San Francisco Bay. They included measures to boost EV takeup, encourage low-emission ridesharing for agricultural workers in the state, and assess California’s EV infrastructure needs.

That’s it for the day’s sessions. Day one of the Global Climate Action Summit racked up more than 70 announcements showcasing actions that companies, cities and states will take to reduce emissions and step up their climate ambition. And there’s more to come tomorrow.

Here are some of the key new announcements:

On Friday, we’re expecting more major (mainstage) announcements:

Tackling waste is a huge part of meeting climate targets and there have been a couple of interesting initiatives announced today. Cutting waste could save 4–6 gigatonnes of CO2e —some 15–20 percent of global mitigation potential.

Also today, 25 cities, state and regional governments have pledged to reduce the amount of waste they produce, cutting municipal solid waste generation by at least 15% per person by 2030, (on 2005 levels), cutting the amount of municipal solid waste that goes to landfill and incineration by at least 50%, and diverting more waste away from landfill and incineration.

The ZEV Challenge will see governors and premiers from 12 global states and regions representing over 80 million people and over 5% of global GDP have committed to 100% zero emission vehicle fleets by 2030 — and to pushing policies that will accelerate a transition to zero emissions vehicles.

IKEA has announced that all of its delivery services will be 100% zero emission by 2025, and by 2020 in five major cities — Los Angeles, New York City, Shanghai, Paris and Amsterdam.

The Investor Agenda has been formally launched — it’s an initiative that brings together nearly 400 investors managing US $32 trillion in assets. They are promising to speed up and scale up the actions that are critical to tackling climate change and achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement. Members will report on their actions across four areas: Investment, Corporate Engagement, Investor Disclosure and Policy Advocacy.

- Kahori Miyake, executive officer of Aeon, the largest retailer in Asia.

- Helen Clarkson, CEO of the Climate Group.

- Shane Rattenbury, Minister for Climate Change and Sustainability, Australian Capital Territory.

Bank of the West, a subsidiary of BNP Paribas, has announced $1 billion in new commitments to renewable and clean energy. This includes a commitment to reduce its carbon footprint by 25 percent and operate at carbon neutrality by 2020. $500 million in financing for renewable and clean energy, $200 million in investments and loans for energy efficient city infrastructure and housing and $300 million in loans to help people access EVs and low emissions vehicles.

The states are committing to a wide range of collective action, including:

Dan Malloy, Governor of Connecticut said “(we should) create an environment where you’d be embarrassed not to have an electric vehicle… we know what’s right, and what needs to be done.”

Jerry Brown, Governor of California said “We’ve got 17 Governors, but we’re a very organized and coordinated group… This summit is advancing the cause, so that more and more people are aware, get it, and resolve to take whatever action they can… Yes we need the Federal Government, we need the President of the United States, but in the meantime we’re going to build the momentum, take concrete action.”

In a new announcement made at the GCAS summit, the $20.7 bn Mahindra & Mahindra group has announced a commitment to become a carbon neutral company by 2040. Mahindra includes one of the largest car manufacturers in India and employs over 2.4 million people across 100 countries. It will focus on energy efficiency, the use of renewable power and strengthening carbon sinks. to achieve this target.

Science Based Targets is an initiative to help companies set their own targets for emissions cuts which are in line with the Paris Agreement. Today it announced that it has signed up 488 companies in 38 countries around the world — with a combined market capitalization of nearly USD$10 trillion, or about an eighth of total global market capitalisation. That’s the same size as the total NASDAQ stock exchange — and includes nearly a fifth of Fortune Global 500 companies.

These companies produce 795 million metric tonnes of CO2 equivalent a year from their direct operations alone, or about the annual emissions of Germany. Over 130 companies have joined the initiative this year.

The Port of Rotterdam is the largest port in Europe, and tenth largest in the world. Every year it processes nearly half a billion tonnes of freight, and industry based at the port is responsible for a somewhat staggering 20% of Dutch emissions. At the summit, the port has announced it is working towards becoming carbon neutral, in line with the objectives of the Paris Climate Agreement.

The alliance has some big names from across the tech and communications sectors, including Salesforce, BT, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Uber, Lyft and Ericsson. Different partners are making a range of different commitments — Salesforce, for example, is committing to powering itself through 100% renewable energy by 2022, while BT will help its customers reduce their own carbon emissions.

Kaiser Permanente, one of the nation’s largest healthcare providers, has finalized an agreement for a major renewable energy purchase that will enable it to achieve a goal of being carbon neutral in 2020. The power purchase agreement for 180 MW of clean energy will power 27 of the health company’s 39 hospitals and pay for the construction of utility-scale solar and wind farms, as well as one of the country’s largest battery energy storage systems.

Today the Alliance is announcing a range of new members:

The Alliance had a goal of expanding to at least 50 members by the end of 2018. As of today, it has 74 members, including 29 nation states, 17 sub-national and 28 businesses. The membership of US states, cities and businesses is significant because it demonstrates opposition to the Trump Administration’s rhetorical support for coal.

Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo has introduced new analysis showing 27 cities around the world have already peaked their carbon emissions, even as their populations and economies have grown. The cities now have emissions at least 10% lower than their peak.

The cities are: Barcelona, Basel, Berlin, Boston, Chicago, Copenhagen, Heidelberg, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Melbourne, Milan, Montréal, New Orleans, New York City, Oslo, Paris, Philadelphia, Portland, Rome, San Francisco, Stockholm, Sydney, Toronto, Vancouver, Warsaw and Washington D.C. Taken together they account for 54 million urban citizens and $6 trillion of GDP.

Action across a range of other sectors will help deliver emissions cuts that can rapidly scale — but the world will need to cut emissions in half every decade to meet climate targets, Rockström says. That is going to depend on accelerated climate leadership — exactly what GCAS is about — and for the ongoing digital revolution in artificial intelligence and cloud computing to be aligned with emissions cuts.

Here are some quotes about the report:

“Right now, it is easier to imagine a global climate catastrophe than a rapid economic transformation, yet the next decade could see the fastest energy transition in history. People underestimate the power of exponential growth. If renewables keep doubling every five or six years, as they have for a decade or more, they will push out fossil fuels much faster than most forecasts. But not without stronger policies.” — Owen Gaffney, report author.

“As a sustainability pioneer in the private-sector, we have been both an advocate of climate action and investing in research and development of climate solutions. We understand the urgency for action. We believe leveraging new technology, such as digitalization and 5G, will be fundamental to reduce carbon emissions by half every decade … As a company, we have cut our own emissions by 50% and are working to meet further reduction targets. We have demonstrated solutions that help make it possible and now other companies and policy-makers must join the quest for broader adoption of solutions to enable exponential reduction of carbon emissions globally.” — Börje Ekholm, EO, Ericsson

Mia Mottley, the Prime Minister of Barbados — which has been battered by intensifying hurricanes and tropical storms —takes the stage to highlight that the country intends to become one of the first examples of how carbon neutrality can be achieved across the economy. “We have set 2030 as the target for us to have a fossil free economy.”

We’ll be keeping track of the announcements coming out of the summit today and tomorrow. Taken as a whole, GCAS is going to showcase a huge amount of change underway in the US and globally. There’s a lot happening, so this will be a curated selection of the initiatives, pledges and statements unveiled over the next couple of days.

World leaders have also weighed in this morning, with Emmanuel Macron stating that the world “must act together to foster innovation, boost transformative projects, gather public and private investments, and deliver on our promises for the next generations.” “Meanwhile, outside the summit, protestors have gathered to call on Governor Brown to go even further and end oil extraction in California — and to protest carbon trading and “false solutions” to climate change.

In a speech on Monday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on world leaders to take faster, more ambitious steps to fight climate change. GCAS will likely provide a torrent of initiatives underway around the world to address climate change.

We’ll use this blog to highlight news and announcements from the Global Climate Action Summit during September 13th–14th.

Thursday Morning: Plenary

Thursday Afternoon: High-Level Thematic Dialogues

Friday Morning: High-Level Thematic Dialogues

Friday Afternoon: Plenary

Friday Afternoon: High-level sessions

America’s Pledge, an initiative to measure the progress that cities, states, businesses, and other subnational actors are making to reduce emissions towards the U.S. Paris Agreement goal, launched a new report Fulfilling America’s Pledge. It suggests that by following a set of high-impact, near-term, and readily available strategies, cities, states, businesses, and other actors could drive US emissions down to 21 percent below 2005 levels by 2025 — a significant step towards the original U.S. target under the Paris Agreement of 26–28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025, even without further federal action.

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