Vanya Walker-Leigh

Global business, industry, financial, labour, city leaders and other non-state actors pledged over 500 ambitious actions to confront climate change at the three-day Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco ending last Friday and hosted by California's governor Jerry Brown.

The final Call to Action, supported by the 4,000 participants urged governments to "step up ambition now, chart a clear path to your zero-carbon future, empower bottom up action ... the whole world has to do more ... together we will rise up and converge on a new climate-safe agenda".

Four days earlier, UN Secretary-General Antonio Figuerres summoned government and other representatives to hear a doom-laden warning. "If we do not change course by 2020, we risk missing the point where we can avoid runaway climate change, with disastrous consequences for people and all the natural systems that sustain us," he stated "enormous benefits await humankind if we can rise to the climate challenge. What we still lack - is the leadership and the ambition to do what is needed." He will convene a heads of state and government summit on climate change in September 2019.

The day before this statement, representatives of the 196 governments contracting parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change meeting in Bangkok failed to resolve several key differences on actions to be taken before 2020 as well as under the UN Paris Agreement on Climate Change (2015) as from 2020, all on the agenda of the next "COP 24" UNFCCC conference in Katowice, Poland (2-14 December) - with heads of state and government expected to attend the opening session. In contrast, on 8 September 250,000 demonstrators marched in 900 events in 97 countries demanding climate action.

Among key pledges made at the GCAS were commitments by groups of stakeholders to achieve emissions neutrality by 2050, implement science-based targets, deliver a 100% zero-emission transport future, launch a Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment and a forest, food and land-focused coalition to deliver 30% of climate solutions needed by 2030.

Nearly 400 investment companies managing $32 trillion promised to ensure the low-carbon transformation of the global economy, while broad support emerged for initiatives promoting green bonds and phasing out coal-based power stations. Twenty-one companies announced a Step Up Partnership to harness emerging technologies and the fourth industrial revolution to cut greenhouse gas emissions across all economic sectors and ensure a climate turning point by 2020.

Co-chair of the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, British economist Nicholas Stern presented the organisation's latest report stating that bold climate action could yield a direct economic gain of $26 trillion through to 2030 compared with business-as-usual. Priorities for urgent action were pricing carbon and moving toward mandatory disclosure of climate-related financial risks, accelerating investment in sustainable infrastructure, harnessing the power of the private sector, ensuring an equitable, people-centred approach.

Another report presented at GCAS authored by research institutes and action groups, Exponential Climate Action Roadmap indicated that halving global greenhouse gas emissions between now and 2030 was technically feasible.                          

Together with former New York City mayor, media mogul and philanthropist Michael Bloomberg Gov. Brown spearheaded a major pushback on President Trump's announcement in June 2017 that the United States would withdraw from the Paris Agreement (becoming effective under the Agreement rules on 5 November 2020). The We Are Still In initiative has mobilised 3,000+ US business, state and academic leaders to commit to implementing the US commitments notwithstanding under the America's Pledge - so far bringing the US economy to almost halfway to the original US target under the Paris Agreement of 26-28% emissions reduction below 2005 levels by 2025.

In contrast, the UK-based think-tank Influence Map has found that nearly all of the world's largest 200 industrial companies have directly or indirectly (through trade associations including Business Europe of which MCCEI is a member) opposed climate policy since the Paris Agreement (which entered into force in November 2016) was signed in December 2015.

Confirming in his statement to GCAS that the European Commission would announce its proposals for EU long-term climate action goals to 2050 before COP 24, European Climate and Energy Commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete also agreed with Governor Brown on stepping up collaboration on carbon markets and other issues. Twelve EU member states belonging to the 14-nation Green Growth group (Malta is not a member) have formally urged higher EU climate targets for 2030, but support from all EU-28 at forthcoming environment and European Councils before COP 24 is seen as unlikely.

On 8 October, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2,500 leading world scientists) will issue a report, endorsed by governments meeting the previous week in Incheon, S. Korea, on the pathways to and huge technological challenges involved in limiting the rise in global temperature to 1.5C (an aspirational goal of the Paris Agreement) above the pre-industrial level. The subsequent increase in global warming to the current level of +1.1C is held responsible for the growing worldwide number of catastrophic weather events, notably in the past few months.