UN Climate Chief Calls for a “New Era of Climate Action” at NY Climate Week

Speaking at a flagship Mission 2025 event during New York Climate Week, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell called for urgent acceleration of global climate action, emphasizing that the world is entering a “new era of implementation” that must connect governments, businesses, and communities like never before.

From Paris to Belém: Time to Step It Up

Stiell reminded the audience that despite political noise, the world is steadily aligning with the Paris Agreement. Renewable investment has grown tenfold in the past decade, hitting $2 trillion in 2024, while over 90% of new renewables are now cheaper than fossil fuels. Yet, he warned, the benefits of this clean energy boom remain uneven, and climate disasters are striking harder every year.

“Connecting cabinet rooms to boardrooms to living rooms is how we supercharge climate action,” he said, stressing that implementation must spread across every sector and region.

Clean Industry and AI: Tools to Power Transformation

Stiell highlighted the urgent need to unlock the $1.6 trillion worth of idle clean industry projects, calling them “wasted potential.” He threw his weight behind the Build Clean Now initiative, launched by the Industrial Transition Accelerator, to fast-track industrial transformation and create millions of green jobs.

He also underscored the role of artificial intelligence (AI). While warning of risks, he stressed AI’s potential to drive efficiency, manage microgrids, map climate risks, and improve resilience planning. “Done properly, AI releases human capacity, not replaces it,” he affirmed, echoing the UN Secretary-General’s call to power AI platforms with renewables.

Financing the Shift: The $1.3 Trillion Roadmap

Finance remains central to success. Stiell reminded leaders that the forthcoming Roadmap to $1.3 trillion annually in accessible climate finance—expected ahead of COP30—must deliver resources at speed and scale, especially for vulnerable nations.

COP30 in Belém, Brazil, he stressed, must respond decisively to updated national climate plans (NDCs), deliver breakthroughs on finance, and prove that climate multilateralism continues to work.

Progress So Far – But the Job Isn’t Done

Stiell acknowledged the progress of recent COPs in bending the temperature curve—from a catastrophic 5°C trajectory to around 3°C. “Still too high,” he warned, but emphasized that global cooperation is driving real change. Later this year, the UN will release a status report on adaptation and the first transparency snapshots of implementation under the Paris framework.

Reaffirming the Paris Commitment

Looking ahead, Stiell urged leaders and citizens alike to send an unmistakable signal: the world remains “rock-solid behind Paris.” He stressed that COP30 must not only drive negotiations but also speak directly to billions, showing how climate action means better jobs, cleaner air, healthier lives, secure food, and affordable energy.

“Let’s Recognize. Reaffirm. Respond,” Stiell concluded. “This is the path to, through, and beyond Belém. Humanity cannot afford to let it stumble.”