Comment on UN Climate Summit

The Summit, convened by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, will be the first time that World Leaders such as Barack Obama and David Cameron have met to discuss climate change since the 2009 Copenhagen climate talks.

ECIU Director Richard Black said, “For those of us who experienced the debacle of Copenhagen at first hand, the fact that 125 heads of state and government are heading to New York to discuss climate change is remarkable.

“But in a wider sense it’s not remarkable at all, it’s just common sense, given the vast amount of evidence now accumulating on the risks incurred by not curtailing greenhouse gas emissions.

“The simple fact that you now have people managing trillions of dollars of investors’ money calling for tough action on climate change shows that things are changing really quickly. I would expect the New York event to restore some of the confidence and purpose that world leaders have lost in the last few years.”

ECIU board member Professor Michael Grubb, Professor of International Energy and Climate Change Policy at UCL, said: “As the New Climate Economy report showed last week, decarbonisation is not only affordable, it is economically rational [3].

“Costs of solar power are tumbling faster than anyone envisaged; other renewables are also getting cheaper, and we’re learning how to reduce demand for energy through smart technology and smart policies. We’re also seeing more starkly than ever the economic damage that would result from unabated climate change.

“What world leaders in New York can most usefully do is to show that they fully endorse the rationale for a low-carbon society, and give investors the confidence they need to turn the vision into reality.”

ECIU board member Dr Camilla Toulmin, Director of the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), said: “About 125 world leaders are coming to speak at the New York summit, which shows how seriously not only governments but also business leaders across the world are taking climate change.

“Science is showing us more clearly than ever the serious risks that climate change poses to people and nature, and economics is showing us that tackling it is the rational thing to do.

“If world leaders at the New York summit put some concrete commitments forward, this summit could play a valuable role in catalysing action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and protect the world’s most vulnerable communities.”

An ECIU briefing on the UN Climate Summit is available here.