The One Planet Summit, hosted by French President Emanuel Macron, jointly organized by the United Nations and the World Bank Group, took place on 12 December 2017, on the second anniversary of the adoption of the Paris Agreement. The Summit brought together world leaders, representatives of various international organizations, financial institutions as well as private sector to discuss how they can accelerate global efforts to fight climate change.
Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of UN Climate Change, said:
Today has marked another extraordinary moment in the world-wide efforts to turn the promise of the Paris Agreement into a global reality—in other words delivering a climate secure future to all corners of the Earth and contributing to the sustainable future of every man, woman and child.[1]
At the heart of the Summit, there were four panels addressing the most pressing issues:
Participants discussed how to mobilize funding towards low carbon and climate adaptation projects. They acknowledged that public finance has a key role to play but alone will not be enough. In particular, long-term strategies on how public finance could leverage private investments have to be developed. The One Planet Summit recognized the role of development financial institutions in the process of scaling up finance for climate action.
In addition, participants of the Summit focused on the involvement of financial sector in the transformation of business. Financial sector should take longer-term perspective by better accounting for climate and include climate related topics. Greening finance may significantly shift investments towards a low carbon economy and may lead to the involvement of the private sector in the fight against climate change.
The One Planet Summit recognized that local and regional governments are key in reaching the global objectives of the Paris Agreement. However, greater collaboration between public and private sectors and between different levels of governments is needed, to unlock the potential of regional and local climate actions.
Discussions revealed that public policies must send strong economic and political signals so that all actors can deeply change their production and consumption patterns towards low-carbon solutions. The One Planet Summit also reiterated that resilience and infrastructure are essential elements to reach the transition.
The One Planet Summit resulted in 12 commitments:
1) Responding to extreme events in island states: Caribbean leaders launched the Caribbean Climate Smart Coalition. It aims to catalyse global climate action by adopting and scaling novel approaches to make the Caribbean the world’s first “Climate-Smart Zone”. In addition, in the Pacific region, the French Development Agency has launched a new initiative on climate and biodiversity to support adaptation to the impacts of climate change.
2) Protecting land and water from climate change: This commitment includes creation of the “Land Degradation Neutrality Fund;” launch of the “Tropical Landscape Financing Facility” expected to raise private funds to finance green and sustainable growth in developing countries; initiation of a $650 million financing programme for research to help smallholder farmers to adapt to climate change; and creation of the 100 Water and Climate Projects for Africa funding platform.
3) Mobilizing researchers and young people to work for the climate, including financial support of $15 million for the One Planet Fellowship for young African and European researchers; and launch of the “European Solidarity Corps” for the climate, with €40 million.
4) Public procurement and access for local governments to green finance, including creation of a common framework for cities to simplify access to climate financing “Global Urbis” and the Alliance of cities and regions for low-carbon public procurement.
5) Zero emissions target, including creation of the “Towards Carbon Neutrality” coalition of 16 countries and 32 cities committed to reach carbon neutrality by 2050; launch of the “Paris Collaborative on Green Budgeting” framework for presenting budgets that indicate the ecology and climate aspects in all their forms; and creation of a Climate Observatory in Space in order to provide States and the scientific community with all the space data necessary for monitoring the health of our planet.
6) Sectoral shift towards a decarbonized economy: The European Commission launched a conversion fund for coal-intensive regions. The International Solar Alliance (ISA),which aims to raise $1 trillion by 2030 from public and private investors,formally entered into force. The ISA emphasises that solar power is one of the most abundant renewable energy sources in world regions that often lack the technologies, funding and expertise to make optimum use of it. Moreover, the Powering Past Coal alliance has announced new members.
7) Zero-pollution transport: 8 countries (including Portugal, the Netherlands, Costa Rica and France) supported by the stakeholders of the Paris Process on Mobility and Climate (PPMC) platform, have created an alliance to work together on roadmaps towards decarbonizing transport and increasing investment in clean transport. Moreover, 34 countries pledged to reduce maritime transport emissions and supported the “Tony de Brum” declaration calling for progress on the International Maritime Organization to regulate CO2 emissions relating to maritime transport. In addition, the Partnership for the Regional Electric Vehicle Plan for the West, bringing 8 western US states, announced its intention to develop a common network of EV charging stations that will make it possible to drive an electric vehicle from one state to another.
8) Towards a carbon price in line with the Paris agreement: Several EU member states including France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom welcomed the agreement on the reform of the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme. However, they consider that additional reforms will be needed and therefore these countries expressed their commitment to examine, or even implement a significant carbon price in relevant sectors. Canada, Colombia, Chile, México and States of California, Washington, Alberta, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Ontario and Quebec adopted the Paris Declaration on Carbon Pricing in the Americas and launched a regional collaboration on carbon pricing. China announced the unification of its carbon market. In addition, a coalition of more than 40 companies led by the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition (CPLC) has called for a carbon price in line with the objectives of the Paris Agreement.
9) Action of central banks and businesses: France, Sweden and the UK, as well as more than 200 businesses announced their support for the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosure. Central banks and financial supervisors, including central banks of Mexico, the Netherlands, Germany, Singapore and China, the Banque de France, the Bank of England, launched the network “Greening the Financial System.” It aims to speed up climate mainstreaming in financial supervision and to promote development of green finance.
10) International mobilization of development banks: More than 30 public development banks committed to align their financing in line with the Paris Agreement. In particular, these banks pledged to embed climate change considerations within their strategies, to redirect financial flows in support of transitions towards low-carbon and climate resilient sustainable development and to promote reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
11) Commitment by sovereign funds, including creation of the working group One Planet Sovereign Wealth Funds (6 of the largest sovereign wealth funds). In order to accelerate efforts to integrate financial risks and opportunities related to climate change in the management of the sovereign wealth funds, the working group will develop an environmental, social and governance framework (the “ESG Framework”).
12) Mobilizing institutional investors, including creation of the “Climate Action 100+” coalition encouraging businesses to implement the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosure (TCFD) and to present a strategy to reduce their emissions compatible with the Paris Agreement objectives. In addition, the Energy Breakthrough Coalition (EBC) welcomed new members including BNP Paribas, Engie, General Electric, Microsoft, Total or SAP SE. The EBC is committed to commercializing innovative zero-carbon energy technologies. Moreover, some 15 philanthropists launched a task force to mobilize philanthropy to contribute to the implementation of the Paris Agreement.
The gLAWcal Team
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[1] One Planet Summit: Finance commitments fire-up higher momentum for Paris Agreement. UN. Available here .
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