The 2019 New York Climate Week is taking place on 23-29 September. This year, for the first time ever, the UN Secretary-General will be hosting a Climate Action Summit the first day of the Climate Week. The purpose of the summit on 23 September is for global leaders to increase both ambitions and action to mitigate climate change and comply with the Paris Agreement.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres is calling on all leaders to come to New York on 23 September with concrete, realistic plans to enhance their nationally determined contributions by 2020, in line with reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 45 per cent over the next decade, and to net zero emissions by 2050.

“I want to hear about how we are going to stop the increase in emissions by 2020, and dramatically reduce emissions to reach net-zero emissions by mid-century,” Guterres said.

American-Danish roundtable on private and public climate action

Together with the Danish Cleantech Hub in New York, the Confederation of Danish Industry and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), State of Green is hosting the event “Corporate and Government Climate Action” on 24 September. It is an exclusive, invite-only roundtable gathering 150 decision-makers from the US and Denmark, who will discuss the progress and future of the private and public sectors’ climate action commitments towards a low-carbon economy.

Since the Paris Agreement from 2015, it has been evident that both political, civil and corporate stakeholders need to engage in order to reach the Agreement’s goals. The private sector is both a part of the problem, but even more, it has to be part of the solution offering new technology, visionary innovation and heavy investments. The event seeks to address exactly this and how the private sector can join forces with public stakeholders in collaborative climate commitments.

Leading role for Denmark at the UN Summit

During the UN Climate Summit, the Danish government (the Minister for Climate, Energy and Utilities and the Minister for Foreign Affairs) will be spearheading one of nine summit tracks, namely the ‘Energy Transition’ track on 23 September. Denmark is partnering with Ethiopia and the Sustainable Energy for All initiative (SE4ALL) to announce several deliverables within this track with the sub-themes of mobilising clean energy investments, encouraging public-private partnerships, ensuring access for all, and engagement of the high-emitting sectors.

Facilitated by the organisation World Climate Limited, the Energy Transition track will facilitate a pre-summit event called the ‘Energy Action Forum’ at Sunday 22 September, gathering high-level stakeholders from public, private and civil society sectors to discuss the commitments and deliverables.

Access Cities and P4G creating a buzz

On 24 September, the international city alliance project, Access Cities, will be hosting their Open Innovation Call Finale. Here the city of New York have targeted their city challenge on air quality and urban heat island effect, and companies from around the world have sent in their proposal to solve this challenge. The winner of the innovation call will be announced at this event, where the New York urban tech environment will be the main audience.

Last but not least, P4G (Partnering for Green Growth and the Global Goals 2030) – with the Danish platform managed by State of Green – will showcase the 2019 P4G State-of-the-Art Partnership Award Winners. These innovative public-private partnerships have demonstrated measurable success in one or more of the five UN Sustainable Development Goals that P4G targets. At a “P4G Awards Luncheon” on 23 September 23, a representative from each of the partnerships will present their achievements to a panel of judges who will select one to be the P4G Partnership of the Year.

In addition, P4G is holding its board and network meetings and acceleration workshops for three P4G Partnerships that are making significant progress and have the potential to be models of change for green growth and action on climate change.

Want to know more? Get in touch

“State of Green and our partners are really looking forward to the New York Climate Week, which has the potential to be a green milestone event in 2019. All relevant stakeholders are encouraged to contact us to learn more about our events or to get in touch during the Climate Week,” said Charlotte Gjedde, Senior Project Manager, State of Green.

Further reading

UN Global Compact Business Guide to UNGA 2019

Photo: John Cameron at Unsplash.com