Climate Week NYC 2024 brought together technology companies, financiers, journalists, policy makers, celebrities, academics and community leaders, the majority of which are laser-focused on enabling a clean energy transition. While FischTank PR held its own climate week events, we felt it would be helpful to provide a recap of some of the news and insights shared that week.
At Climate Week NYC, Advocates for Plant-Based Diets Make Their Case for the Climate – Inside Climate News
That transformation, the group emphasized, centers on a plant-forward diet. Tilt issued a report, based on research from the consulting firm, Systemiq, focusing on strategic funding to make the shift. It says that investing in “plant-rich consumption and production” results in more emissions reductions than investing in renewables or electric vehicles.
Every $1 billion invested in advancing a plant-rich food system could reduce 28 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually, compared to a 5 metric ton reduction from renewables or a 7 metric ton reduction from electric vehicles, the report found.
Climate-Techs Want to Save the Planet. First They Need to Save Themselves – WSJ Pro
Globally, climate startups raised about $5.6 billion in venture capital in the third quarter as of Sept. 23, per preliminary data from Dealroom. That was 41% less than the money collected by climate startups in the second quarter, according to the same data. Funding declines are registering across business-development stages, from early to scale-up.
Dealroom estimates that global venture funding to climate-tech will fall about 27% for the full year.
Climate startups are dealing with the difficulties all startups have—a still-lofty rate environment and a lack of exits. In climate, however, they face a few more: a big need for capital, a long and uncertain development process and a slow path to sales.
Climate Week: Key moments you may have missed – Washington Examiner
Al Gore, the former vice president to Bill Clinton and known environmentalist, has given the climate crisis a new name. For Gore, it all revolves around fossil fuels.
“The climate crisis is a fossil fuel crisis; the fossil fuel industry is the wealthiest and most powerful industry in the history of the world,” he said at Axios House. “They fight ferociously to stop anything that would stop consumption of fossil fuels. They are way better at capturing politicians than emissions.”
Gore insisted that fossil fuel companies are not going to “lead the way” in tackling climate change. He also asserted that banks and financial institutions won’t follow suit “unless they get a lot of pressure and policy changes.
Climate Week confronts geopolitical hurdles – Axios
Rockefeller Foundation president Rajiv Shah told Axios there’s a geopolitical reluctance as elections near for countries to pledge new, major climate finance and other commitments. “I think everybody is absolutely holding their breath and saying, in every single election across this planet, is it going to be more populist withdrawal from global cooperation?”
However, Shah said momentum can be seen via government and nonprofit partnerships, such as a $90 billion initiative with the World Bank that Rockefeller announced late last week. It seeks to bring renewable electricity to 300 million Africans by 2030.
Leaders at climate meetings in New York warn of growing mistrust between nations – Reuters
The Climate Group, which is coordinating Climate Week, counted some 900 climate-related events planned across the city this week, hosted by multinational corporations, international non-profits, governments and activists.
Climate summits and events like Climate Week, held alongside the U.N. General Assembly, have taken on a more urgent tone in recent years as rising temperatures fuel increasingly extreme disasters like heatwaves and storms.
Climate change-fueled extreme heat is worsening. Experts worry about the effect on patients – Healthcare Brew
Extreme heat can not only lead to heat stroke, dehydration, and heat exhaustion, but it can also have negative long-term impacts on patients living with asthma, kidney issues, and high blood pressure, according to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Specifically, older adults, pregnant people, people of color, people who earn lower incomes, and people with preexisting conditions like diabetes, hypertension, or cardiovascular disease are all at increased risk of developing a heat-related illness.
Climate Week NYC Carbon Management Recap – Deals Struck But More Buyers And Education Needed – Carbon Herald
“Climate Week NYC 2024 brought a lot of positive developments across the board with a pledge to triple funding for nuclear energy, the establishment of a national U.S. green banks forum, and a significant number of fresh and renewed carbon removal deals.
Several themes permeated the more carbon-focused part of the week. Top of the list is that carbon removal has arrived on the scene and is establishing itself as one of the prefered ways to tackle decarbonization. Opposing voices continue to raise concerns – many of them legitimate – but a milestone has been reached and this might be the at which we stop calling the industry nascent even though many of the technologies in it still are.”
Climate Week NYC 2024 delivers carbon removal deals, green banking coalition – CFO Dive
International corporations and policymakers descended on New York City for the city’s annual Climate Week and the United Nations General Assembly meetings.
The climate-focused festivities kicked off Sunday afternoon with a heavy emphasis on the theme of time, followed by several corporations and organizations slating climate-related announcements to release on the first full day of the climate action-focused week.
The announcements included a commitment to triple nuclear energy financing, the launch of a national forum of U.S. green banks and a pair carbon removal related commitments.
Jiffy Junk Celebrates Climate Week 2024 With Hands-on Tree Planting Initiative – Press Release
As part of its continuous effort to promote environmental sustainability, the Jiffy Junk team is proud to announce its participation in Climate Week 2024 in NYC. Since 2023, Jiffy Junk has sponsored the planting of more than 15,000 trees and plans to take their commitment a step further in 2024. The Jiffy Junk Team is on the ground in NYC this week, rolling up their sleeves and participating directly by planting trees themselves.
Drag queen Pattie Gonia aims to give the climate movement a makeover with joy and laughter – AP News
In its second year at New York Climate Week, “Save Her! Environmental Drag Show” has become a popular attraction during the event that includes hundreds of panels, activities and meetings with scientists, activists, executives from green energy companies, politicians and many others.
The show aims to inspire the audience to talk about climate change, caused by the burning of fuels like gasoline and coal, while making people laugh. The show combines disparate things to create absurdities, such as changing the lyrics of Katy Perry’s “Fireworks” song to, “Baby, you are a plastic bag,” while Gonia pulls plastic bags from her breasts. While drag queens and drag kings enact scenes that could be interpreted as metaphors for harming or preserving the Earth, like crashing a car or riding a bike, somber statistics flash on the screen, like 20 large corporations are responsible for a large portion of all the greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere and heating the planet.
New York Climate Week takeaways: Island nations speak up and fossil fuel subsidies come under fire – Euro News
The role of technology in the fight against climate change was also a hot topic during Climate Week.
“We need to start thinking about how AI can help us accelerate the transition and understand the mechanics of renewables development,” said KPMG’s Hayes.
AI can help with site selection, procurement with renewable options and make the whole process much quicker. It’s not the secret sauce but it can certainly help and is probably going to be centre stage for KPMG at COP.
Tech has already helped speed up climate adaptation processes, Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland, noted: “Fiji needed a nature seawall and we were able to make an application and get it agreed within 12 months, with the help of technology and AI.”
NYC Food Policy Center: September 2024 Food Flash – NYC Food Policy
Food Tank also hosted several events, focusing on the role our food system plays in climate change and what can be done to increase resilience for all. Key takeaways from Food Tank’s panels include:
- Working to ensure that changes are being made collaboratively and across communities is instrumental in turning the tide toward climate-friendly policies and systems
- Farmers must be at the center of solutions because their practices are what can create change in emissions, land use, soil erosion, and biodiversity.
- Resilient food systems are built from the bottom up and created through communication. Farmers, scientists and researchers, community members, and government officials at all levels must collaborate to create systems that can stay productive, functional, and accessible despite the increased occurrence and intensity of natural disasters brought on by climate change.”
This Animated Climate Film Encourages You to Fight Against Pesky Pollutants – Little Black Book
Super-pollutants – including black carbon, methane, hydrofluorocarbons and tropospheric ozone – are responsible for 45% of global warming and impact our health, lifestyles and exacerbate climate change. Yet they are often overlooked in climate discussions, namely because their scientific nature can make them a complicated and technical issue to understand. Purpose, in collaboration with the UNEP-convened Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC)and UN Environment Programme raises awareness of the impact of super-pollutants and the brilliant, continuously evolving range of solutions that we as a global climate community can put into place to tackle them.”
Seeking a climate focused media relations firm?
Climate Week NYC 2024 was great, and planning for 2025 is already underway. If your brand would benefit from working alongside an award-winning climate tech PR and sustainability PR firm, please contact [email protected]
***Climate PR news roundup guest post from FischTank PR interns Baylee Matthews and Kaylee Seitz***
