The bits that mattered from New York Climate Week
Key reports and announcements included more debate about green growth and VCM developments
There was a lot of noise at this week’s New York Climate Week, but not a huge amount of substance. Real Economy Progress has waded through the reports, announcements and LinkedIn selfies from the thousands of attendees (and the torrent of posts criticising them for contributing to emissions) to find the interesting bits.
The Net Zero Tracker collaboration identified a 23% rise in the number of corporate net-zero targets set over the last year. However, its latest annual update, released to kick Climate Week off, warned that 40% of non-state actors still didn’t have any climate goals, and barely any of those that do exist are sufficient in ambition and governance.
The realities of corporate green growth
The debate about whether achieving such targets will have to come at the expense of profit, growth and/or investment returns continued to rage throughout the week.
Poul Weihrauch, CEO of Mars, used the event to argue that there was “a sound business case for corporates to tackle climate change”.
In a blog, he described himself as “part of a generation of CEOs who have a real opportunity to help address these issues”, noting that Mars reduced its GHG emissions by 8% last year, across all scopes. Since 2015, that number is 16%, while the business grew more than 60%.
The sentiment was echoed by the World Economic Forum, which claimed its Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders delivered 10% aggregate absolute emissions reductions between 2019 and 2022 and demonstrated “the achievable reality of sustainable economic growth”.
The revenues of its 131 members, who include some of the biggest names in food & agriculture, heavy industry, chemicals, technology and finance, grew by 18% in aggregate over the period, compared with GDP growth of 15%.
Feike Sijbesma, who chairs the supervisory board for Dutch conglomerate Royal Philips, said the figures “prove that green growth is not just an idea for the future but a real value driver today”.
Financing climate stuff (including carbon credits)
The Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) published case studies to help corporates and their investors implement transition finance strategies, and the Climate Bonds Initiative released a framework to help them identify climate resilience projects.
The Natural Climate Solutions Alliance launched an updated guide for corporates trying to understand how and when to buy nature-based carbon credits as part of their climate strategies.
Carbon markets standard-setter Verra announced a partnership with US bank Citi, which will see the former educate the latter on the market while the latter will “provide Verra with valuable insights into innovative financial tools” and “pav[e] the way for more dynamic market solutions”. Verra also teamed up with verification body SustainCERT “to overcome barriers to scale credible corporate Scope 3 action”.
Other papers
Schneider Electric, which is sometimes crowned the most sustainable company in the world, unveiled a paper titled AI for the Energy Transition, and another on mitigating embodied carbon in buildings.
Non-profit The Climate Registry (TCR) and consultancy firm EcoEngineers published guidance for developing carbon disclosure legislation, with a focus on addressing supply chain and data quality challenges.
