Abundant energy at Climate Week NYC

By Andrew Adie & Rhea Xigaki

As Climate Week NYC draws to a close, Bloomberg Intelligence released some eye-popping research suggesting that Europe will spend €500 billion on climate resilience measures to 2035. This includes rebuilding as a result of extreme weather as well as investment into climate mitigation and resilience.

On one hand this underlines the scale of the ongoing challenge, in a year marked by more extreme weather, from droughts in Northern Europe, catastrophic flooding in Nepal and concern about the likely impact of a particularly strong El Niño.

On the other hand, it underlines the enormous investment and business and growth required to transition the economy to a more resilient and sustainable model.

New York Climate week, held in the shadows of the UN General Assembly, had to compete for headlines with more fractious geopolitical debates. In the UK Andy Burnham’s meeting with Donald Trump gained a great deal of exposure but for many of the business leaders attending, that would have been a blessing.

Business leaders are notably more cautious about taking speaking slots on global stages to outline their vision on sustainability (and especially net zero) but are focused on pushing forward their transition plans. 

This year, that included a major focus on finance to deliver the significant investment alluded to in the Bloomberg Intelligence report, and in developing renewable energy systems, set against rising energy prices globally.

Our key takeaway from Climate Week NYC was that it set a more business-like tone, focused on delivery of investment and on-the-ground projects: 

Climate Week felt more like Energy Week

• Energy moved to the centre of Climate Week, with discussions focused on electrification, grids, affordability and practical delivery. Politico’s Sara Schonhardt, attending her fifth Climate Week, said the event increasingly felt like “Energy Week”. At the opening, UK Energy Secretary Ed Miliband described climate change as a national security issue, reflecting a wider shift towards presenting clean energy through the language of security, resilience and economic self-interest.

Affordability is changing how climate action is communicated

• Energy costs were one of the week’s most consistent themes. Political and business leaders argued that technologies which reduce emissions must also reduce household bills, particularly as conflict, volatile fuel markets and growing electricity demand place consumers under pressure. In the US, Senator Ed Markey focused on the “energy crisis” and rising bills rather than the “climate crisis”, while discussions across New York returned to how increasingly visible climate impacts can be explained in terms that relate directly to people’s homes, jobs and bills.

Senior political attendance was weak, but practical discussions continued

• Turnout at the UN climate summit was notably low, with island states and European countries among the more visible participants because of their exposure to rising seas and temperatures, while several major emerging economies were less prominent. The restrained attendance reinforced the absence of consistent US leadership: Hawaii Senator Brian Schatz said the world should move forward rather than wait for the US to return, although the discussions also underlined that sustained progress will be harder without the world’s largest economy. Away from the leaders’ summit, governments, businesses and experts continued working through the practical requirements for cleaner energy, including grids, investment, ports and private-sector participation.

AI and data-centre development became a local political issue

• AI featured prominently across Climate Week, both as a potential tool for addressing climate change and as a growing source of pressure on energy systems. Data centers require large amounts of electricity, water, land and grid capacity, with small groups of local activists and community representatives voicing strong opposition to new developments over their impact on pollution, resources and household energy costs. AI currently accounts for around 1.5% of global electricity use, according to the National Artificial Intelligence Association, and could reach 3% by the end of the decade. UN climate chief Simon Stiell warned that AI companies are on “thin ice” over their licence to operate, amid a growing backlash that prompted Amazon sustainability chief Kara Hurst to tell communities to “hold us accountable” over data-centre practices.

Climate Week began setting the agenda for COP31

• Türkiye was prominent throughout the week as it built support for a proposed COP31 target to raise electricity’s share of global energy use from 23% today to 35% by 2035, backed by Australia and the European Union. The proposal is not part of the formal negotiations but is expected to feature heavily in the wider COP31 programme. AI and data-centre development are also absent from the formal agenda despite their prominence in New York, although the presidency plans a dedicated technology and AI day. Türkiye’s own projections indicate that it will reach only 25% electrification by 2035, showing the scale of the policy changes required even in the host country

SEC Newgate client Enaleia was on the ground making the case that ocean recovery belongs at the heart of climate action, with oceans storing around a quarter of global CO₂ emissions. Enaleia is behind the Mediterranean’s largest marine-plastic recovery initiative, operating in a sea that is among the areas most heavily affected by marine litter globally, with around 730 tonnes of plastic entering it daily. Enaleia aims to eradicate marine plastic pollution in the region within the next decade and has already engaged more than 7,000 fishers and recovered 2.2 million kilograms of plastic but requires international corporate partnerships to fund recovery and return collected waste to the circular economy.

Climate NYC now sets the stage, and influences the agenda, for the coming weeks, which will create a drum beat to COP31.  The next round will be pre-COP, held in Fiji, Tuvalu and Australia between 5-8 October, where climate finance, green growth, energy and the oceans are expected to be the focus. There will also be a significant focus on resilience and adaptation for island nations, particularly those in the Pacific. 

The coming weeks promise to be a period that offers scope for reflection on progress but also demand to accelerate investment and corporate involvement in sustainable projects that benefit people and planet and drive growth, jobs and returns.