EIT Climate-KIC at Climate Week NYC 2024
EIT Climate-KIC is in New York for Climate Week 2024. We have curated an exciting series of events with our partners at the Systemic Climate Action Collaborative.
We will explore: How can we create meaningful storytelling and narratives that build hope and inspire action? What new forms of collaboration can help us accelerate and scale climate action? How do we unlock large-scale investments in climate adaptation and resilience? What does it take to support holistic and systemic approaches to landscapes, land use, regenerative agriculture, and forestry? We’ll also be addressing the climate finance gap and discussing the importance of decolonising digital information.
We are regularly publishing updates from our delegation on the ground on this page.
Click here to find our full programme
Saturday, September 21st
Today, world leaders adopted a Pact for the Future at the UN Global Assembly in New York. The Pact covers a broad range of issues including peace and security, sustainable development, climate change, digital cooperation, human rights, gender, youth and future generations, and the transformation of global governance.
The Pact should ensure that international institutions can deliver in the face of a world that has changed dramatically since they were created. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said: “We cannot create a future fit for our grandchildren with a system built by our grandparents.”
Its deliverables include:
- The first multilateral recommitment to nuclear disarmament in more than a decade, with a clear commitment to the goal of totally eliminating nuclear weapons.
- An agreement on the need to reform the international financial architecture so that it better represents and serves developing countries.
- A commitment to improve how the world measures human progress, going beyond GDP to capturing human and planetary wellbeing and sustainability.
- A comprehensive global framework for digital cooperation and AI governance.
- A Declaration on Future Generations, with concrete steps to consider future generations in decision-making, including a possible envoy for future generations.
- A clear call on the need to protect human rights defenders.
EIT Climate-KIC welcomes the adoption of the Pact for the Future.
Kirsten Dunlop say: “The Pact for the Future is a critical step forward in building a sense of planetary consciousness and shared destiny. The fact that Heads of State have agreed to commitments on 56 actions, covering a variety of topics such as nuclear disarmament, the reform of the international financial architecture and the role of future generations in global decision making, demonstrates a willingness to embrace both the necessary listening and recognition of the need for urgent, transformative and collective action. Reaching this agreement was by no means guaranteed, and it is something to build with.
Now, significant challenges remain in turning these principles into concrete actions. To paraphrase UN Secretary-General António Guterres, countries must now move into implementation at an accelerated pace. To this end, EIT Climate-KIC will continue to work closely with cities, regions, and countries to enable them to translate their climate and nature commitments into effective action through systemic approaches to innovation, helping them to build a just, climate-resilient future for their communities.”
Sunday, September 22nd
Today marked the opening of Climate Week New York, organised by the Climate Group. The theme for this year is simple: It’s Time. While much of the conversation echoed the messages we’ve heard in the past, a few key insights stood out.
- Susana Muhamad, Colombia’s Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development, said that restoring nature should be a core pillar of climate action. She called for an international coalition to “make peace with nature,” a movement she hopes will gain momentum at COP16—the biodiversity conference happening this October in Cali, Colombia, where a delegation of EIT Climate-KIC experts will be present.
- Kamal Kishore, UN Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction, pointed out the lack of investment in risk prevention. Funding in that area could save lives, reduce environmental damage and future costs. Kishore also talked about the difficulty of building a resilient infrastructure for the next 100 years, given the uncertainties of future climate risks, a theme that is at the heart of EIT Climate-KIC-led programme, Pathways2Resilience.
- Luc Triangle, Secretary General of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), pointed out that informing and consulting the public on climate policies isn’t enough. As countries are expected to renew their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in 2025, he said people need to feel ownership of the NDCs. For him, this means involving communities, workers, and marginalised groups in the decision-making process, something we’ve been working on in our Deep Demonstration programmes, for instance in Ireland, where we are placing farmers and families at the centre of the transition, to demonstrate what healthy, just and regenerative societies can look like.
Monday, September 23rd
On September 23rd, we partnered with Futerra for a panel discussion on the power of stories of hope and possibility. We invited H.E. Agnes Mary Chimbiri-Molande, Atossa Soltani, Veena Balakrishnan, and Csaba Manyai to share their experiences of bringing a positive angle to climate stories and how it helps mobilise action. Futerra’s CEO, Lucy Shea, talked about the importance of promoting role models and developing character-driven stories that inspire agency in people.
Dr. Agnes Chimbiri-Molande, the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Malawi to the United Nations explained that when negotiations get stalled, participants often revert to storytelling, sharing narratives about the future of their children and grandchildren. This, she said, is what helps negotiators begin to truly listen to one another. What matters, she says, is to address cultural issues, as people express themselves through cultural practices, and this needs to inform the agreements made between countries.
Atossa Soltani, from the Amazon sacred Headwaters Initiative, said that we are now at a point where we have to reimagine what is possible. “Looking into the past, we often think we have to solve these problems through intellect,” she says. Instead, she suggests that we should look to nature, which already functions in a complex ecosystem of interdependency. She adds: “We need to learn from these natural systems and explore how we can borrow and adapt these lessons to solve the challenges we face.”
For Veena Balakrishnan, one of the co-Founders of the Youth Negotiators Academy, the climate crisis is a crisis of leadership. One of her organisation’s goals is to bring back trust in multilateral processes and systems, and to give young people the skills and tools to understand and participate in those processes. She stated, “Young people have been asking for a seat at the table, but there is no mechanism or bridge to bring them inside. We wanted to address this systemic lack of representation.”
Stay tuned as we’ll soon release an interview with Veena Balakrishnan on the How Could We? podcast.
The recording of the session is coming up on Futerra’s YouTube channel. We will be updating this blogpost soon.
Tuesday, September 24th
Today, EIT Climate-KIC CEO, Kirsten Dunlop, facilitated an event organised by the Systemic Climate Action Collaborative, an initiative uniting 15 diverse partners (B-Team, Metabolic, Climate KIC, Club of Rome, Pyxera Global, etc.) who decided to stop competing for funding and instead work together to overcome climate inaction and fragmentation. The event, titled Action greater than the sum of the parts: Systems change collaboration, provided thoughtful discussions and insights on how a new form of collaboration can emerge to solve the most pressing challenges of our time.
We heard from the leader of the Amazon Secret Headwater on indigenous perspective of nature and of capitalism. Fred Tsao of Tsao Pao Chee Group talked about individual consciousness and collective consciousness and how businesses should accept the responsibility to reverse the damage on climate that capitalistic exploitation had done on climate change, planet, and people. He also talked about how businesses should find new approach to gain profit while taking care of people, planet, and prosperity. Fred offers an Asian perspective, bringing in the concept from I-Ching. The way of life comes from nature. Vincent Peribonne of OceanX reflected on his career of being a neuroscientists and later ocean researcher that climate change is not an incurable decease but a problem we have the solution for. The problem is not the solution but people.
The Climate-KIC team also participated in the launch of the Resilience Finance Taskforce for Resilient Cities, an initiative launched by Resilient Cities Network and supported by EIT Climate-KIC that aims to bring together a network of cities practitioners, funders, and stakeholders to scale-up resilience finance. We heard from Cape Town, a city that spent 12 years in building a solid and long-term strategy-led portfolio strategy particularly centred on building resilience for the cities and its communities. The city is now implementing each of the axes of the programme, starting with the most urgent ones.
Recognising the challenge at stake, and the difficulties to finance certain elements of the portfolio that sound less profitable and attractive for the funders, the Taskforce will create the tools and framework, design the pathways to unlock finance, work on multi-level governance guidance, and work on how to find the additional finance necessary to implement the portfolios.
Wednesday, September 25th
Today, EIT Climate-KIC in partnership with the Systemic Climate Action Collaborative hosted a series of panels focusing on the power of collaboration in addressing climate challenges.
In the first session, Neil Walmsley, Head of International Markets at EIT Climate-KIC, highlighted the growing need for innovative solutions in the global adaptation economy.
Eleni Myrivili, Global Chief Heat Officer at UN-Habitat and Board Member of the EU Climate Adaptation Mission, started by talking about the increasing urgency of heat-related issues and the need for systemic responses. Matt Anderson, CEO of Cryogenx, said that while there was an increase in awareness of heat-related illnesses, such as heat stress and heat stroke, there was still a significant gap in understanding the data that can drive effective prevention and treatment.
Renate Bleich of Munich Re Foundation talked about the role of insurance in reducing the financial, operational, or investment risks associated with implementing climate adaptation projects. She called for more inclusive insurance models and noted the importance of building collaborative, systemic approaches to involve all stakeholders.
Anmol Vanamali, Director of Innovative Finance at the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, talked about the need for “readily bankable adaptation projects” and for the actual capacity to develop interdisciplinary solutions. Funders and banks will likely support scalable adaptation efforts of project that are ready to implement and that already have the technical expertise.
At the “Faster, Further and More Fairly” panel, we discussed how systemic approaches can accelerate urban transformation to address climate challenges. Moderated by Sandrine Dixson-Declève, Co-President of the Club of Rome, the panel explored the intersection of democracy, storytelling, and innovation in climate action.
Anthony Zacharewski, President of Democratic Society, talked about the importance of engaging communities in climate projects. He referenced a G20 survey showing that 60-80% of people recognise climate change as the biggest crisis and stressed the role of participatory democracy in driving progress in the implementation of climate solutions for urban transformation. “If we don’t tackle this issue as a collaborative, we’re bound to fail,” he concluded.
Lucy Shea, Group CEO of Futerra, talked about the role of storytelling in shaping public perception. “The climate story is deeply anxiety-inducing”. What is needed, she explains, is positive, empowering narratives that can inspire change. People, she added, are far more likely to believe information presented in story form than as mere facts.
Kirsten Dunlop, CEO of Climate-KIC, pointed out that “cities concentrate risks and our capacity to imagine.” She talked about the role of urban areas in driving innovation, a topic she developed in an recent episode of How Could We? podcast.
Speakers also called for a democratic infrastructure that facilitates knowledge exchange, transcending traditional concerns of citizenship and democracy.
On the next session: “Scaling Climate Solutions Through Landscape and Bioregional Regeneration” speakers specifically talked about the need for collaboration, indigenous leadership, intentional financing, and building strong market links to achieve meaningful landscape regeneration. They mentioned examples of global and local initiatives focused on landscape and bioregional regeneration through integrated landscape management (ILM) and regenerative agriculture and talked about how to scale these practices through landscape partnerships.
Mahmood Sonday of REOS Partners started by reminding the audience that indigenous people are the primary Guardians of the planet. “The approach we take needs to be indigenous-led.”
Erik Bruun-Bindslev pointed out that many food industry companies are beginning to realise their role in soil degradation. He said: They are now realising that their time is up.”
Seth Shames, Managing Director of EcoAgriculture Partners, talked about the importance of guiding financial investments into regenerative landscapes.
Sara Scherr, President of EcoAgriculture Partners, introduced the “1000 Landscapes for 1 Billion People” initiative, which focuses on driving landscape partnerships and mobilising finance for regenerative projects.
The panellists agreed on the need for more intentional leadership and collaboration and asked: How do we hold to our sense of humanity while the poly-crisis unfolds?”. They also talked about the need to support locally-led initiatives, especially in the Global South, “If you want impact, you need to work with those that don’t need to do an assessment to understand what is going on in the landscape.”
Our last session, the “Missing Trillions”, was hosted by Metabolic and addressed the climate finance gap. Eva Gladeck, CEO of Metabolic talked about systemic risks, barriers, and high-leverage opportunities to accelerate investment in decarbonisation efforts.
The panellists explored new pathways for collaboration and scale.
Attendees were then invited to share their own initiatives and participated in collaborative group discussions, focusing on concrete solutions to close the climate finance gap and accelerate global decarbonisation efforts.
EIT Climate-KIC Head of Philanthropy, Melody Song, also attended a must-expected panel today. She explains: “Last year, the Youth, Social Business and Technology session was voted the most popular session during the UN General Assembly (UNGA). Today’s session had a special meaning because what went on with Professor Yunus in the last few months. Muhammad Yunus, a Bangladeshi economist, went from being a prisoner to the new Prime Minister of Bangladesh. As her daughter Monica rightfully pointed out, this was partially a result of the bravery of youth in Bangladesh protesting and demanding change. I am also quite impressed with the UN goodwill Ambassador James Chao for telling the story of people connecting and how through dialogue, meeting people in person, and sharing stories are the most important way to make a change. Christina Jaager of Yunus Environmental Hub (YEH) talked about training women and youth entrepreneurs. 70% of the entrepreneurs trained at YEH are women and 50% are youth. Quite impressive to hear that. We were graced with professor Yunus’s presence but unfortunately time was really short for him. In general, I feel the UN format is too formal to make connection with people and have deep conversation about the complex issues we are talking about. A lot of people are thinking about involving more youth in those UN processes and this sessions with Yunus will aim to include 50% of youth next year.”
Thursday, September 26th
Today was an inspiring day filled with bilateral meetings with partner organisations, donors and people that we are building collaboration with.
Our team also went to a workshop on the build environment that aims to connect the whole community of the built environment. We heard from Rohit Aggarwala, the Chief of Climate Officer in New York about his experience working on the urban transformation of the city.
The Arup team also presented a study with interesting figures:
- Emissions from the building sector are expected to increase in most regions by 2050 (+6% i the US, +118% in Africa, +80% in South East Asia), except in Europe, where it’s expected to decrease by 24%.
- 41 million households are unable to keep their home warm in Europe during the winter motnhs
- 258 million migrants are facing exclusion in cities in China
- 60% of the funding analysed by the study goes to the high income countries. 3/4 of grants are project based and short term, with the majority, 91% below two years.
Friday, September 27th
Today, we joined the Pyxera Global team, an organisation that is part of the Climate Action Collaborative, for a series of events at the Tzu Chi Center.
In the first session, Partnership for Digital Justice: Decolonizing Digital Information, we heard from Mario Baeza, Founder & CEO at Tropix Media & Entertainment about his work to digitalise the audio-visual, musical, and more broadly cultural content from communities in Cuba. Baeza said: “There is nothing more important than cultural identity. One of the most impactful thing we can do today is to digitalise and bring online all of the content from the Global South and from indigenous communities. There is so much learning, history and heritage from these cultures that need to be preserved.”
Atossa Soltani of the Amazon Sacred Headwaters added that unfortunately “The education system is the biggest threat to the preservation of our cultures because it tripcs children of their cultural identity, their language, etc.” Her organisation started “The Living Amazon School” (EVA) to train the next generation of Indigenous youth leaders.
In another panel, experts from Metabolic, Circularity Consulting, Founder Circular Supply Chain Network and Pyxera Global discussed how to accelerate the reuse practises in critical mineral supply through the intersection of policy, investment and consumer demand, and how to do this while creating value for the community.
In the last session, we discussed community stewardship and the importance of prioritising place-based approaches and solutions.
The CEO of Pyxerra Global, Deirdre White, notes that it was time to rethink our language. Terms like “development” and “empowering” are holding us back, she explained, and it’s time to adopt new terminology to reframe how we collaborate with one another and with communities. “It’s about agency,” she concluded.
As the team is about to live New York, and reflecting on the past few days, we leave with a few take-aways:
- A lot of people have been saying here at Climate Week New York that the success of the much-anticipated COP30 will depend on the outcomes of COP29, where critical progress on climate finance is on the table
- There is growing consensus on the need to scale innovative solutions and foster collaboration across sectors, as well as a recognition that current funding models are not fit-for-purpose as they often remain project-based, making it challenging to support broader, system-level shifts
- We’ve seen many ambitious pledges over the past few years, but no concrete roadmap. The global conversation is now turning to implementation
- The youth movement continues to be focused, determined, and mobilised with a sense of purpose that is much needed. Their presence offers a powerful reminder of the urgency and the commitment needed for real change
- Ten years ago, the private sector’s involvement was limited in climate events. Today, we see every actor—from public institutions to private companies, funders, civil society, and more — working together. There is a collective spirit of co-creation, as more people from diverse sectors mobilise for transformation.
The next big events are the Biodiversity COP, (also called COP16), in Cali, and the Climate COP, or COP29, in Baku. Subscribe to our special COPs mailing list if you’d like to be up to date about the events we’ll be organising and joining at COPs.
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