Global stakeholders have presented innovative ideas on the transition to low carbon economies at the Global Climate Action Summit.
The Global Climate Action Summit was held 13-14 September 2018 in San Francisco, USA, and was attended by governments, businesses and representatives of civil society, who gathered to discuss the transition to low carbon economies around the world and the strategies that could facilitate this.
The European Investment Bank partnered with the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy to launch a pilot initiative which seeks to address technical and financial barriers and strengthen investment in green projects and programmes that will drive the transition to low carbon economies in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
How will this project support the global green transition?
The Global Climate City Challenge will select projects in six cities to benefit from funding, which in turn aims to mobilise significant private investment. Maroš Šefčovič, Vice President of the European Commission responsible for the Energy Union, said that fighting climate change starts at the city level.
He said: “With the right support, cities have the power to tackle the climate challenge, transform society and create a sustainable future. We can achieve this only by working together. This collaboration between the Global Covenant and European Investment Bank is a prime example of how we can come to a solution, releasing resources and finance that will help cities to meet and exceed the objectives of the Paris Agreement.”
What efforts are national governments taking?
One strategy that was presented is a UK Government scheme, the Powering Past Coal Alliance, which is a coalition of 74 governments, businesses and organisations which seeks to end the use of coal power in order to help countries meet their Paris Climate Agreement target. The alliance added ten new members at the summit.
Nick Bridge, the UK Foreign Secretary’s Special Representative for Climate Change, welcomed that progress had been made in strengthening the alliance. He said: “We are delighted that ten new members have this week joined our international alliance to end the use of unabated coal power. Rapidly decreasing our dependency on coal is crucial to meeting our global Paris Agreement commitments. The UK has committed to ending unabated coal power generation by 2025 and we want to help other countries and organisations who share the same ambition.”
