On 22 and 23 April, President Biden is convening a Leaders Summit on Climate. The event aims to accelerate actions to address the climate crisis, including emissions reductions, finance, innovation and job creation, and resilience and adaptation.

Before and after the Summit, governments, cities, businesses and others will gather for US Climate Action Week.

The Political Legacy of 2021: Reflections from Past COP Presidents & Climate Leaders   

This event aimed at promoting a dialogue between former COP Presidents, UK government representatives and climate leaders on possible elements for the legacy of the 2021 momentum to multilateralism, with a focus on COP 26.

On the one hand, the first version of the UNFCCC NDC synthesis report has unequivocally demonstrated that current ambition is far from a 1.5°C future, making it most relevant to maintain strong political momentum during 2021, culminating at COP26.

On the other hand, such momentum must transcend 2021 to lay the foundations for effective implementation, including actively embracing the non-state actors visible leadership and aligning the recovery and climate agendas. In this sense, COP26 must not only be a checkpoint for the first ratchet cycle of the Paris Agreement, but should also lay ahead a clear pathway for the next 5 years of the climate regime, since they will constitute the make-or-break of effective implementation.

The 2021 climate political legacy from COP26 could create the enabling conditions for the Paris Agreement ambition mechanism to deliver stronger results.

Panelists shared their views on such enabling conditions and elements, based on their experience and engagement in international fora and domestic climate policy.

Speakers:

• Laurent Fabius, COP21 President and President of the Constitutional Council of France.
• Carolina Schmidt, COP25 President and Chilean Minister of Environment.
• Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, COP20 President and WWF Global Lead Climate & Energy.
• Dr Jonathan Pershing, Senior Advisor to US Presidential Envoy on Climate.
• Helen Mountford, Vice President, Climate & Economics, WRI.
• Moderator: Vanessa Pérez-Cirera, WWF Deputy Global Lead Climate & Energy.

All In For Climate: How a Whole-of-Society Approach Can Accelerate the Race to Zero 

Alliances for Climate Action and the UNFCCC Race to Zero Campaign hosted a conversation with leading subnational and non-state actors to discuss how a “whole-of-society” approach can address the climate crisis.

Representatives from leading companies, local and state governments and other institutions from Argentina, Brazil, Japan, Mexico, South Africa and the United States explored domestic opportunities to realize 1.5C aligned national targets through the decarbonization of the power, transport and land use sectors.

Panelists shared the actions that their institutions are taking and discussed how subnational and non-state actor institutions can partner with each other and with national governments to accelerate the decarbonization of these critical sectors.

The event highlighted how domestic Alliances for Climate Action are championing a “whole-of-society” approach to address the climate crisis, contributing to building the groundswell of support for the global Race to Zero Campaign and the necessary Breakthroughs across the global economy spearheaded by the UNFCCC High-Level Champions for Climate Action.

Speakers:

• Renato Casagrande, Governor, State of Espírito Santo, Brazil (Aliança pela Ação Climática Brasil)
• Cristian Feldkamp, CEO, CREA (national farmer association) (Alliance for Climate Action Argentina)
• Sofía Hernández Morales, Executive Director, Territorial Governance, State of Jalisco (Alianza para la Acción Climática de México)
• Aya Nagata, Director of Energy Policy Department, Global Environment Policy Office, Environment Policy Bureau, City of Kyoto (Japan Climate Initiative)
• Michelle Patron, Senior Director, Sustainability Policy, Microsoft (America Is All In)
• Kevin Rabinovitch, VP, Healthy Planet, Mars (America Is All In)
• Paul Vorster, CEO, Intelligent Transport Society South Africa (Alliances for Climate Action South Africa)

Special remarks from Antha Williams, Global Head of Climate & Environmental Programs, Bloomberg Philanthropies; and the UNFCCC High-Level Champions for Climate Action, Gonzalo Muñoz and Nigel Topping.

Scaling Business Action for Climate and Nature: A CEO Dialogue   

On Earth Day, climate change took center stage as President Biden convened a Global Leaders Summit to help build the ambition and momentum we need for global climate action this year and beyond. While the focus of the summit is on national governments, every sector of society needs to align to achieve the commitments for a transition to a clean and more equitable economy. Business leadership plays a critical role in tackling the climate crisis and powering a resilient, zero-carbon economy.

WWF President & CEO Carter Roberts hosted a virtual dialogue with the CEOs of some of the world’s largest companies about scaling corporate climate leadership — through setting ambitious science-based targets and investing in nature-based solutions.

Special Guest

The Honourable John Kerry, U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate.

Speakers include:

• Sonia Syngal, CEO, Gap Inc.
• Michele Buck, President, CEO & Chairman of the Board, The Hershey Company
• Enrique Lores, President & CEO, HP Inc.
• Chris Kempczinski, President & CEO, McDonald’s Corporation
• Doug McMillon, President & CEO, Walmart Inc.
• Carter Roberts, President & CEO, WWF
• Marcene Mitchell, Senior Vice President, Climate Change, WWF

Our Planet: Too Big To Fail

The British Embassy and WWF hosted a virtual screening of the film: Our Planet: Too Big To Fail.

The film was followed by a panel discussion with some of the cast of the film and special guests on how we can transform the global financial system to deliver a sustainable, net-zero future.

Sir Partha Dasgupta from the University of Cambridge and author of the independent Economics of Biodiversity Review commissioned by UK Government, was joined by Sarah Breeden, Executive Director for the UK Deposit Takers Supervision from the Bank of England, Nina Chen, Sustainability and Climate Initiatives Director from the New York State Department of Financial Services, Steve Waygood, Chief Responsible Investment Officer from Aviva Investors and Bevis Watts, Chief Executive of Triodos Bank UK, for an engaging conversation on incorporating climate, nature and biodiversity into economic and financial decision-making.

Raising Ambition for Nature​  

2021 will be a pivotal year for nature and climate on the multilateral stage and a critical opportunity for governments to take the necessary decisions to reverse the current dramatic negative trends concerning the state of the planet. Building on the 2020 UN Biodiversity Summit, this event offered an occasion to: 

• Raise awareness about the process towards and the approach for an ambitious post 2020 Global Biodiversity Framework to be agreed at CoP 15, 
• Demonstrate the importance of such an ambitious outcome for the wider sustainable development agenda, and 
• Illustrate opportunities for the mainstreaming of biodiversity and nature on the 2021 UNNY agenda. 

Jointly with representatives from governments, the UN, civil society and the private sector, the event focused on key upcoming opportunities to raise the bar on ambition for nature in the General Assembly, what is needed and what we can do to turn the tide, in anticipation of the strong new global post 2020 framework for biodiversity to be agreed in Kunming.

Speakers include:

• H.E. Volkan Bokzir, President of the UN General Assembly
• H.E. Amina J. Mohammed, Deputy Secretary General United Nations
• H.E. Mohamed Fathi Ahmed Edrees, Permanent Representative of the government of Egypt to the UN and representing Egypt as CBD COP14 President
• Basil van Havre, co-chair of the Open Ended Working Group of the CBD and representing Canada
• Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, Coordinator of the Association of Peul Women and Autochthonous Peoples of Chad (AFPAT) & Board member of International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change.
• Moderator: Ligia Noronha, Assistant Secretary-General, UNEP