2024 Climate Week NYC events

Transition planning: moving from principles to practice

When: Wednesday 25 September 2024, 07:30 welcome breakfast, 08:00-11:00 EST session
Location: Columbia University’s Faculty House, Skyline Dining Room: 64 Morningside Dr | New York, NY 10027
Cost: Free, including beverages and breakfast

As the global economy transitions to a just, low-emissions, climate-resilient and nature-positive future, we can expect every sector to transform. However, systemic transformation requires strategic transition planning, effective coordination and communication across the economy.

To facilitate this, governments can play a decisive role by managing change and setting incentives and constraints for private actors. Similarly, private sector actors can enhance their corporate strategies and financing decisions to support this transition. Transition plans serve as a roadmap to transformation by outlining a strategic vision and identifying capital needs, external factors and dependencies.

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment (CCSI), the World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA), the Centre for Economic Transition Expertise (CETEx) at the London School of Economics and Political Science and Climateworks Centre, working in collaboration with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), invite public and private sector practitioners looking to play their part in accelerating climate action to join an interactive, workshop-style event to brainstorm around:

• How to accelerate progress towards integrated transition planning across the ecosystem, bringing public and private sector transition planning together
• How best to leverage new approaches, frameworks, tools and metrics that can enhance the credibility of transition planning across the economy and fill any remaining gaps

This event is hybrid, please register to join virtually here

Workshop for ATP-Col members

When: Wednesday 25 September 2024, 11:30-13:00 EST
Location: Columbia University’s Faculty House, Skyline Dining Room: 64 Morningside Dr | New York, NY 10027
Cost: Free, including lunch for members

Event type: This is a closed event for ATP-Col members. For more information on ATP-Col please contact r.poivet@worldbenchmarkingalliance.org

ATP-Col members are invited to a hybrid format workshop to explore further collaboration areas and how we can continue to collectively contribute to harmonise assessment practices and build capacities with a wider community on decarbonisation, just transition, adaptation to climate change effects, nature/biodiversity and more. In this workshop we will:

• Identify progress on those topics conducted by ATP-Col members
• Shape potential collaborations
• Identify funding needs

Powering a Fast & Fair Transition to Renewable Energy

Public Event, Climate Week NYC

When: Wednesday 25 September 2024, 4-6 pm EST
Location: Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice | 320 E 43rd St, New York, NY 10017

World Benchmarking Alliance, Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, and Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment are pleased to invite you to a Climate Week NYC event on respecting human rights in the race to ramp up renewable energy investment and production.

How do we ensure our future energy system is built on a foundation of trust, community empowerment and respect for rights by companies and governments? This is the question we will discuss during this event, with perspectives from civil society, business and government.

The conversation will unpack civil society expectations and the complementarity of roles of governments, investors and companies, including:

• Governments integrating just transition principles into climate policies and Nationally Determined Contributions, and creating enabling conditions for the fast deployment of rights-respecting renewable energy projects through supporting policies and public procurement requirements, and
• Companies strengthening their human rights policies and practices, and investors using engagement to advance human rights in their investments and net zero strategies.

Due to limited space, your registration is only complete once the organizers have confirmed your attendance.

Please note: Confirmation by organisers required to attend. The Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice (FFCSJ) requires all guests to be registered in advance and to show photo ID in order to be admitted to the building. Unregistered guests will not be permitted entry to the building.

Financing and Regulating NOC Just Transitions Away from Oil and Gas

Public Event, Climate Week NYC

When: Thursday 26 September 2024, 09:00-10:30 EST
Location: Lerner Hall, Room 555: Columbia University, 2920 Broadway | New York, NY 10027
Cost: Free, including beverages

This side event co-hosted by the World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA) and the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment (CCSI) will examine the levers that financial actors and regulators have to enhance the credibility of transition plans of National Oil Companies (NOCs).

At COP28 Parties agreed to an equitable transition away from fossil fuels. To build on this, NOCs  must be held accountable on their transition plans as these companies account for half of oil and gas production, 40% of investments in the sector and two thirds of the planet’s hydrocarbon reserves.

Financial actors and regulators have a key role to play through the financing and technical assistance they provide. This event co-hosted by WBA and Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment (CCSI) will delve into these topics and showcase research from WBA, CCSI, IISD, Carbon Tracker and NRGI.

Key areas of focus will include:

• Highlight the importance of NOCs’ just transitions away from oil and gas and embedding this in the NCQG and NDCs 3.0 ahead of COP29 and COP30
• Showcase the state of play of transition plan readiness for different NOCs
• Dive deeper into the levers that financial actors and regulators have at their disposal to increase the transition plan readiness of NOCs

If you’d like to join us for this event, please register using the form below. Spaces are limited and will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.

All eyes on emerging markets: the global focus for transition finance

When: Thursday 26 September 2024, 10:45- 12:15 EST
Location: Lerner Hall, Room 555: Columbia University, 2920 Broadway | New York, NY 10027
Cost: Free, including beverages

In this roundtable senior leaders from finance, business, governments and civil society will discuss the energy transition in Emerging Markets and Developing Economies (EMDEs) and the opportunities, challenges and solutions for finance.

The energy transition will succeed or fail in EMDEs, which house 85% of the world’s population, account for over half of global GDP and contain most of the world’s natural resources.^[1] A clear understanding of the needs and priorities for their success is essential for institutional investors to confidently engage with and fund EMDEs’ energy transitions. During this roundtable we will discuss the current state of play, highlighting areas of progress that have been made and identifying where global attention is needed to increase the scale and speed of financing for EMDEs. Key themes are likely to include:

• How financing challenges for EMDEs can be addressed to unlock capital for their energy transitions and the role of developed nations in contributing to this
• The policy interventions and regulatory updates that would most effectively increase sustainable capital allocation to EMDEs
• The proactive measures that investors and other financial institutions can take to encourage capital flows to EMDEs and engage effectively with EMDE assets

The discussion will be informed by WBA’s project Investing Sustainably in Emerging Markets, in which we are being supported by IIGCC, PRI and others, as well as CCSI’s academic research in this space. The session will be hosted by World Benchmarking Alliance, and Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment (CCSI). Further participants and contributors will be announced in due course. If you’d like to join us for this event, please register using the form below. Spaces are limited and will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.

Got a question?

Send it to our Engagement Lead Romain Poivet at r.poivet@worldbenchmarkingalliance.org or our Policy Lead Joachim Roth at j.roth@worldbenchmarkingalliance.org