RMI Joins Global Leaders for New York Climate Week
2020 is the year that many people woke up to the immediacy of climate change. The West Coast has suffered from the worst wildfire season in memory. Repeated hurricanes have bashed the Atlantic Coast and Gulf Coast. Both of these were driven by the hottest August on record in the Northern Hemisphere; Death Valley may have recorded the highest temperature measured to date on the Earth’s surface.
And yet there are hopeful signs. While the economic contraction has been tragic and is not a substitute for structural measures to reduce emissions, the decline in global oil demand due to the pandemic may have pushed forward peak oil demand by several years. And in many parts of the world, political leaders are showing a new willingness to take bold action while applying solutions to sectors which have previously been ignored.
New York Climate Week comes at this dramatic time for the world. This year’s events will be virtual but will still bring together global leaders to address this most urgent of challenges. Climate Week will comprise over 350 separate events, many of which are taking place from September 21–27. Events will focus on ten themes, covering a range of sectors including electricity, transportation, industry, finance, and the built environment.
All of these are areas where RMI has a long track record of applying its unique abilities in techno-economic analysis and systems thinking approach to bring sophisticated solutions. We will again join in this year’s Climate Week, with a focus on addressing some of the more difficult decarbonization challenges and the key areas of hard-to-abate sectors.
This includes an event where RMI, Browning Environmental Communications, and the United Nations Development Programme look at the importance of digital tools in many aspects of the climate struggle. “Digital platforms can be used to activate or inhibit the kind of broadly based changes needed to meet the climate crisis,” says James Newcomb, RMI’s managing director for strategic engagement and analysis. “Actors in the climate space need to understand how these powerful tools are being used today and how they can create positive outcomes for our future.”
Below are some of the events that RMI will participate in:
September 22, 5 p.m. ET
Climate Intelligence for the Oil and Gas Industry and Beyond
RMI and Spherical Analytics (S|A) will discuss the need to make emissions visible and actionable, and the ways to make it happen. Panelists include representatives from RMI, SA, Oil & Gas operators, Financial institutions, and other NGOs.
This webinar will focus on how the Climate Action Engine is a starting point of a larger effort to connect industries, finance, and other stakeholders with asset grade data that will help them meet emissions reduction targets, as increasingly demanded by the global community, in particular consumers, stakeholders, and governments.
September 23, 11 a.m. ET
The Role of Digital Platforms in Addressing the Climate Crisis
Rocky Mountain Institute, Browning Environmental Communications, and the United Nations Development Programme invite you to explore The Role of Digital Platforms in Addressing the Climate Crisis in a panel discussion. We will examine how organizations leading climate action can employ effective digital strategies and the success factors of leading digital campaigns in activating change to limit global temperature increase to 1.5°C.
September 24, 9am ET
Beyond 2020: States and regions leading to a better climate future—The Under2 Coalition General Assembly 2020
The Under2 Coalition’s General Assembly will bring together Tim Ash Vie – Director, Under2 Coalition Secretariat, Climate Group, RMI Principal – Carbon Free Cities & States, Jacob Corvidae, Jerry Brown – Global Ambassador, Under2 Coalition and more leaders from ambitious states and regions to share new ways to fight climate change. The Coalition’s members have been driving climate leadership for over five years, including when national governments can’t or won’t step in. Now, in the Climate Decade, join this discussion to learn how we can do even more to halve emissions by 2030 and build a better future for all.
September 24, 9 a.m. MT
Redesigning Industry: Shifting the Way We Produce, Transport, and Use Energy and Materials
RMI invites you to learn from LafargeHolcim, HYBRIT, and ClimateWorks executives, representing hard-to-abate sectors like cement and steel, about requirements and implications of successful transition at scale in the decisive decade. This webinar, session six in a year-long series based on RMI’s Seven Challenges for Energy Transformation, will look at the analytics, technology business models, policy, and market disruptors that enable transformation of an industry’s overall infrastructure.
September 29, 10 a.m. ET
MSCI and PRI Seminar: Climate Risk Resilience in the Post-2020 World
The financial sector has a fundamental role to play in averting the climate crisis and setting the global economy on track for a cleaner, sustainable future. Join MSCI and United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) at this event that will discuss how investors can take action now to accelerate the transition to a Paris-aligned economy in the world after 2020. RMI Global Climate Finance Program Managing Director Paul Bodnar will give the keynote address on the Green Recovery and US Climate Policy.
Follow and Share on Social Media!
Follow RMI experts as they share their experiences at virtual Climate Week. We encourage you to follow them on our Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook pages using #ClimateWeekNYC. Go deeper with timely and topical blog posts on RMI’s blog, and subscribe to RMI’s Spark e-newsletter to get the latest news and content on Climate Week NYC and beyond delivered directly to your inbox.
What’s Next?
Structurally reducing our emissions to put the world in line with a 1.5°C future will take both vision and action from industry, government, and the public. Coming together at events like Climate Week to share information, learn, and plan are important parts of this work, but there is much more to be done.
As part of this, we will be updating you on the opportunities that emerge from the week’s events, and how they inform our work this year, next year, over the next five years, and beyond. We look forward to working with you and all our partners, supporters, and donors to create a better future for humanity.