After New York, what next? The urgent need for faster action to go from fossil to clean.
Andrew Prag, Managing Director of Policy and Gillian Nelson, Director of Policy
As Climate Week ends, the message is clear: faster government and business action is needed to end fossil fuel reliance.
As we return from an intense week in New York, we’re taking stock of learnings from many insightful meetings with governments and businesses on how we accelerate the transition from fossil fuels to clean energy solutions.
Climate Week NYC, the UN General Assembly, and the Secretary General’s Summit for the Future were frenetic. There were many notable positive signals, including governments of the world signing the Pact for the Future, reiterating their commitments from COP28 on transitioning away from fossil fuels, tripling renewable energy capacity and doubling energy efficiency by 2030.
From the business community, we saw strong momentum on renewable energy and a significant appetite to contribute to clean solutions. This was especially evident during an event marking We Mean Business Coalition’s 10-year anniversary, a highlight of the week which reflected on a decade of impactful climate action and how to accelerate this action in the future. You can explore our thought leadership pieces and podcasts celebrating a decade of action here.
This momentum was affirmed by a recent International Energy Agency report, which found that the goal of tripling renewable energy by 2030 is “within reach thanks to favorable economics, ample manufacturing potential and strong policies”. The analysis also underlined that the COP28 goals are “not a menu from which countries can pick and choose: together they form a high-level, multilateral roadmap the energy sector has long been lacking.”
More action on fossil fuels needed
But overwhelmingly, the sense we leave New York with is that we are still far behind where we need to be. While we continue to make great strides in scaling up clean solutions to the climate crisis, we still aren’t doing enough to address the primary driver of climate change – burning fossil fuels.
The momentum that we saw in the lead up to and coming out of COP28, following the historic agreement to transition away from fossil fuels landed in Dubai, is not yet translating into the level of action from governments that we need to see. We mustn’t allow momentum to dwindle.
It’s time to meet the moment. The new national climate plans and strategies governments have agreed to deliver by early 2025 must show how they will deliver on this roadmap to accelerate their country’s transition from fossil to clean and close the gap to limiting global heating to 1.5°C.
Upcoming opportunities to shift the narrative
With only three months left before we hit the mid-point in this “decisive decade”, there’s a lot to get done and a series of important meetings on the calendar at which governments will make important decisions, spurred by private sector action and support.
This month, the G20 meetings kick off with Climate and Environment Ministers and Energy Ministers convening in Rio de Janeiro and Foz do Iguaçu, alongside the 15th Clean Energy Ministerial and 9th Mission Innovation meetings. The month ends with a Joint Meeting of Climate Change and Finance Ministers, essential for aligning climate action and finance ahead of COP29, where a new post-2025 international climate finance goal is expected. These efforts aim to ensure financial flows support strong NDCs from governments before COP30.
Amplifying the call the action from business
Bringing a strong voice of the private sector to these moments will be essential in this critical time where we need the G20 governments to lead.
We Mean Business Coalition is supporting businesses in these efforts. Last month we launched our new call to action “Time to Deliver: Business Call to Action for Ambitious and Investible NDCs.” It outlines what governments, especially the G20, need to do to unlock private sector investment and create the thriving clean-energy and nature-positive economies of the future. This builds on the Fossil to Clean policy advocacy letter, which demonstrates strong business support for the transition away from fossil fuels. It calls for governments to reflect support for an accelerated transition in the NDCs that must be submitted to the United Nations by early 2025.
To succeed, these national plans must be backed by clear targets, policies and timelines to create a virtuous circle of fast-flowing investment, accelerated action and ratcheted ambition.
We are in a historic window of opportunity to shape climate action for the critical decade ahead. With NDCs taking center stage at the upcoming G20 meetings and COP29 in Baku, we are looking to mobilize the business voice in the run up to and at these moments to advocate for ambitious and investible NDCs that accelerate each country’s transition from fossil to clean.