New actions to immediately tackle climate change were announced by government, business, finance and civil society leaders at the United Nations Secretary-General’s Climate Summit in New York.
The new initiatives for finance, farming, forests, as well as new coalitions bringing together cities, businesses and citizens will cut emissions and strengthen resilience to the impacts of climate change and global warming.
“Change is in the air. Today’s Climate Summit has shown an entirely new, cooperative global approach to climate change,” Mr. Ban said. “The actions announced today by governments, businesses, finance and civil society show that many partners are eager to confront the challenges of climate change together.”
The initiatives announced at United Nations headquarters in New York range from actions that will have a profound impact on global financial markets to more local actions that will reduce the emissions of smallholder farmers. In the energy sector, two initiatives announced today will be scaled up to expand access to clean, renewable energy for people in eastern and southern Africa and the Small Island Developing States.
“Today shows that the world is finally waking up to the economic and social opportunities of taking action on climate change. “ Mr. Ban said. “The Climate Summit is showcasing a level of ambition not seen before and producing actions and new initiatives that will make a significant difference.”
Key announcements:
Finance: An initiative to mobilize more than US$200 billion in financial resources from public and private sources by the end of 2015. This includes new pledges for the Green Climate Fund, the decarbonization of investment portfolios (moving assets out of fossil fuel-based investments), the continued efforts of national banks to invest in new climate activities, and wide support for putting a price on carbon emissions.
The Summit announcements for climate financing include the following commitments:
A coalition of institutional investors has committed to decarbonizing $100 billion in institutional equity investments by COP 21 (December 2015) and to measure and disclose the carbon footprint of at least $ 500 billion in investments.
Commercial banks will provide $30 billion in new climate finance by the end of 2015 by issuing green bonds and other innovative financing instruments.
The national, bilateral and regional development banks of the International Development Finance Club announced they are on track to increase their direct green/climate financing to $100 billion-a-year for new climate finance activities by the end of 2015.
The insurance industry has committed to double its green investments to $84 billion by the end of 2015 and announced that it would increase the amount placed in climate-smart investments to ten times the current amount by 2020. Developed and developing countries have started pulling together to capitalize the Green Climate Fund, by pledging several billion dollars.
- A group of developed countries announced a commitment of $18 billion to be channeled to the developing countries during 2014-2020 with strong focus on adaptation and mitigation.
Three major pension funds from North America and Europe announced their ambition to accelerate their investments in low-carbon investments across asset classes up to more than $31 billion by 2020.
- More than 70 countries and 1,000 companies endorsed the need for developing mechanisms that would adequately reflect the true costs relating to polluting and emissions; and over 30 leading companies endorsed the Caring for Climate Business Leadership Criteria on Carbon Pricing, which include setting an internal carbon price high enough to materially affect investment decisions to drive down greenhouse gas emissions.
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