UNGA and New York Climate Week Roundup

Insights from our Co-Founder Barry Johnston, as he debriefs on what went down at Climate Week 2024.

I say it every year, while it’s popular to throw shade at the annual diplomatic and development hoopla, if it didn’t exist, you would have to come up with something in its place. But as one UN insider told me, the halls of the actual UN were oddly quiet come early evening. Most of the real action has now spread out across Manhattan with initiatives launched, deals signed and intel shared in a festival of fringes, forums and fireside chats. Meanwhile the continued growth of NY Climate Week has broadened the range of participants and discussions occupying the agenda in the Big (Green) Apple.  

So what were the takeaways:

“This time we mean it …”

Another summit, another global agreement. This time the Pact for the Future. It seems to have been Secretary General Guterres’ attempt to put his stamp on the UN system in the way his predecessors Kofi Annan did with In Larger Freedom and Ban Ki Moon with the SDGs. 

It hasn’t quite happened, has it? Perhaps of more significance was the sight of the Republic of Congo and Mexico shutting down Russia’s late attempts to scupper the whole deal - the growing confidence of developing and middle income nations within intergovernmental negotiations giving us more of a sense of the shape of things to come than the contents of the negotiations themselves. 

The Pact is a greatest hits of UN commitments, with some interesting new riffs on digital governance and intergenerational decision making. As one long-in-the-tooth diplomat remarked at a roundtable event, instead of agreeing new commitments, it might be time to start delivering on the old ones. 

How are those SDGs coming along? 

Brick by BRICS

Speaking of flexing middle powers, it was hard to avoid the Brazil and South Africa delegations wherever you went in New York - one Brazilian official was even spotted at a packed out event for the Global Citizens Assembly as far afield as W 65th street. 

Brazil has been pursuing an ambitious agenda during its’ G20 presidency with big ticket initiatives on ending hunger and a global climate tax. But it’s also been notable for its extensive outreach to global civil society and willingness to take on ideas that would have caused previous G20 presidencies to blanche.

This programme gets passed on to South Africa at the end of the year for what will be the first African G20, and the fourth in a row outside of traditional Northern host countries. Those representatives we met with from the Rainbow Nation seem just as fired up about the ambition and prospects for their turn in the hot seat.  

With Brazil due to move from G20 to COP hosting duties in 2025, it represents an opportunity for a fresh perspective on our global decision making architecture. Perhaps it’s not in the austere conference rooms of the UN where multilateralism will be rebuilt, but in newer, younger democracies seeking to lead south of the equator. 

Money Talks

New York has always seemed an incongruous location for an annual gathering to discuss, among other things, global poverty and inequality. Blacked-out limousines and SUVs rumble from 5-star hotel to 5-star hotel, while those of us on foot schlep past luxury boutiques and $100-dollar steakhouses to attend fringe meetings with titles like “Partnering to eradicate poverty” or “Towards a world free of TB”.

Then again, maybe it’s exactly the right place. While those of us in Midtown wring our hands at the scale of human immiseration and cheer pledges of millions to relieve the suffering, downtown on Wall Street the titans of international finance orchestrate the flow of billions from their desks. We spent a morning helping to bring these world’s together.

The main point of agreement? Our shared problems don’t exist because of a lack of money. There’s more than enough of that to go around. The problem is it’s in the wrong places, being put to the wrong use, or not being made to work hard enough. In just a brief ninety minute conversation we heard about a bewildering array of clever financial arrangements that would free up vast sums of private finance to be invested in social and environmental outcomes. None of this would require campaigning, or changing of laws. It just requires those with the knowledge and access to finance spending more time with the people who know where and how to spend it. You would be surprised how little that happens. 

As always, great to meet up with old friends and new at Purpose Union’s annual UNGA Pivot Happy Hour at the Hawksmoor NYC. 

Next year in Cape Town? Or Belem?

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