This summer was the hottest on record (surprise, surprise), and after a year where global temperatures finally exceeded 1.5°C, the need for faster and more effective climate action couldn’t be clearer. With the countdown to COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, underway, the usual big topics are still on the table: climate finance, holding corporations accountable and setting national climate targets for 2035. But will we get more than just talk from world leaders at the UN’s main climate conference?
Leading up to COP29, New York hosted Climate Week NYC 2024, the largest climate event of its kind.
Hold on a Minute, What is New York Climate Week?
Climate Week NYC 2024 ran from 22 to 29 September, bringing together leaders from business, academia, government, civil society, and the climate sector. This year’s theme, ‘It’s Time,’ set the tone for over 600 events and activities across New York City. On their website, they put it bluntly: “We’re in the age of urgency. People and companies are waking up to the fact that we need to act fast, as they see the effects of climate change all around them. Yet we’re still not going fast enough.” Sounds good, doesn’t it?
What I actually enjoy most about these conferences are the young attendees. What they say and do often matters more than the speeches from world leaders. Youth activists have already shifted the momentum and the narrative, calling out the causes of the climate crisis and holding those responsible to account. They’ve exposed the fossil fuel industry’s greenwashing, fake sustainability efforts, and attempts to use young activists for their own image through “youth-washing” tactics. From leading fossil fuel divestment campaigns in schools and communities to publicly shaming politicians when needed, young people are really at the forefront of this fight.
Climate Week NYC 2024: It’s Time
They highlighted five key principles for action:
- It’s Time to put people first – the transition must be just.
- It’s Time to pay up – the Global North has a responsibility to free up long-overdue climate finance, ensuring people in climate hotspots are protected and resilient.
- It’s Time to listen to citizens – around 80% of people globally want their governments to take stronger action on climate. They know what needs to happen, and it needs to happen fast.
- It’s Time to be honest with ourselves – we need to face the reality of technology’s role in solving climate change.
- It’s Time to have the difficult discussions about fossil fuels – how do we solve the geopolitics of the last barrel of oil, and how do we get fossil fuel companies to shift their business models?
The last point seems like the most crucial to me. Fossil fuels are the number one cause of climate change, responsible for over 75% of global greenhouse gas emissions (yes, that’s true). If we don’t stop burning coal, oil, and gas, we can forget about any of these climate targets.
Take a look around: wildfires are raging across continents, floods are swallowing cities, and heat waves are breaking records year after year. We can thank fossil fuels for that. Take the wildfires in Canada in 2023, so bad that the smoke reached New York, turning the skies an eerie orange. In Italy, temperatures hit 48°C, pushing both humans and infrastructure to the brink. All of this chaos ties back to our love affair with fossil fuels.
Meanwhile, fossil fuel companies are still raking in profits, even as the planet burns. They love to paint themselves green, saying they’re working on “sustainable solutions,” but as soon as no one’s looking, they go right back to their old habits.
And when tensions rise over gas supplies, like after Russia invades Ukraine, it’s clear how messy things get when we cling to fossil fuels. Countries scrambled for alternatives, showing just how fragile our energy dependency really is.
At the time of the invasion, everyone was worried about gas prices and what would happen if Russia suddenly cut off exports to Europe. By then, the European Union had already announced a strategy to reduce its reliance on Russian gas as part of an energy plan to cut overall fossil fuel use by 40% by 2030. But announcing a long-term plan is very different from actually taking visible action.
I remember thinking, “This is it! This is Europe’s chance to cut off Russian gas completely, abandon gas altogether, and push for renewables, no matter the cost.” Of course, transitioning to green energy isn’t easy. It requires huge, sustained investments in insulating buildings, electrifying home heating and transport, focusing on green hydrogen, and speeding up the development of low-carbon energy sources, even faster than climate change demands. But it has to be done. Period.
The Crossroads We Face
Civilisation stands at a crossroads. We can either cling to fossil fuels, continuing to damage public health and the natural systems that support life, or we can break free from this dependency and work towards a fair transition to clean, renewable energy. Every day we burn fossil fuels, we drift further from our goals for a sustainable, liveable planet (because, clearly, who needs clean air and a stable climate, right?).
To protect our wildlife and tackle global poverty, we need to let go of harmful fossil fuels. This isn’t just about the environment; it’s about creating a fair and peaceful future that respects the dignity of all people and the diverse life we share this planet with. The choices we make today will shape the world we leave behind, regardless of whether we have children or not. It’s our collective responsibility to ensure everyone has a healthy and thriving planet to call home.
And if we don’t take radical action, what’s the point of all these Climate Weeks anyway? Just a load of hot air, in more ways than one.