Biden, Bloomberg and other leaders discuss what’s being done about the climate crisis

On Tuesday at the Bloomberg Philanthropies Global Business Forum in New York, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva took a moment to sing the line “This is how we do it” from the 1995 hip-hop hit “This is How We Do Het.” She did this while standing on stage with World Bank Group President Ajay Banga and United Nations Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance Mark Carney.

Although Banga immediately pointed out Georgieva’s significant omission of the word “baby” at the end of the line, two other words — “we” and “do” — in what Georgieva sang reflected what was emphasized throughout the forum. by a speech by US President Joe Biden. Everyone who spoke at the forum agreed that there is a need for more collective (hence the word ‘we’) action (hence the word ‘do’) on climate change. After all, the ongoing climate crisis has become one of the greatest threats to human health and well-being.

Michael R. Bloomberg, Special Envoy for Climate Ambition of the UN Secretary General and founder of Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg Philanthropies, opened the forum by explaining its purpose: “We created this forum to give leaders an opportunity to have conversations in the private and public sectors. sectors, and to build new partnerships for some of the toughest challenges we face.” He went on to say: “Today, climate change is the special focus of our conversations, because no issue poses a greater threat to peace and prosperity or greater opportunities to stimulate economic growth.”

The forum then continued with a series of four discussions with various business leaders and policymakers, including Georgieva, Banga, Carney, CEO of ALTÉRRA Majid Al Suwaidi, CEO of CDP Sherry Madera, President and Chief Investment Officer of Alphabet and Google Ruth Porat, CEO of LSEG David Schwimmer, Chairman of the Board of IOSCO Jean-Paul Servais, Managing Director & CEO of Macquarie Group Shemara Wikramanayake and Group Chief Executive of Standard Chartered Bill Winters. Actor and activist Jane Fonda then took to the stage to deliver some remarks, followed by Bloomberg, who then set the stage for a speech from Biden, who had addressed the UN General Assembly earlier that day.

The other active participant on stage throughout the forum had a healthy respect for science. No one argued against the abundant evidence that climate change is real and a major threat to human well-being. There was no need to further convince anyone that man-made pollution contributed to climate change. There was no talk of space lasers causing the California wildfires or any other such unscientific nonsense. Although at one point during his speech, Biden leaned closer to the microphone and said in a deeper voice, “By the way, windmills don’t cause cancer.” Yeah, no real opposition to windmills on this forum.

No, the forum was focused on discussing action, what has been done and what more needs to be done about the climate crisis. For example, during the first panel discussion moderated by Carney, titled “Multiplying Impact and Improving Lives Through Partnerships,” Georgieva and Banga discussed actions taken individually and jointly by the IMF and the World Bank. “We are looking at green growth opportunities for our members,” says Georgieva. “As a financial institution, people look at us and say: ‘Do you think the climate is important? Put your money where your mouth is.’” She went on to say, “So we created the Resilience and Sustainability Trust and injected $1 trillion in liquidity and reserves to help the economy overcome shocks.”

Georgieva added: “The IMF creates fiscal space and then the World Bank can bring strong investments.” It was around this time that Georgieva invoked the lyrics of “This is How We Do It” to emphasize the need for cooperation against the common threat of climate change. She assured everyone: ‘The majority of people are friendly and good and helpful to each other.’

However, what gets attention today is not necessarily what the majority of people want, say and do. Earlier in the day, during the third Earthshot Prize Innovation Summitco-organized by the Earthshot Prize and Bloomberg PhilanthropiesFormer Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern had warned that political leaders often do not represent what the majority of the population wants. She pointed to the relative inaction of many political leaders on the climate crisis, despite polls showing that the majority of people around the world want much more action.

Combine these observations with clear evidence that the climate crisis is getting worse, and it wouldn’t be surprising if many people are skeptical about what will be done about the crisis. About all this, Georgieva offered this: “History is a zigzag movement, up and down, but the trajectory is up [when it comes to taking more action against climate change].” Carney also lent the following thoughts: “[People tend to] over-rationalize the past, over-dramatize the present and underestimate the future.”

The forum highlighted other actions taken, including new ones hot off the press. In the second panel discussion ‘Unlocking the Power of Climate Reporting: A New Frontier of Open Data’ Madera talked about plans for CDB and the Net-Zero Public Data Utility (NXDPU) to expand their existing partnershipwhich will make more reliable climate-related data available worldwide. In addition, there is on the forum The Global Capacity Building Coalition (GCBC) announced this the launch of a beta version of a new digital platform to make climate finance capacity building resources and programs more available to financial institutions, financial professionals and others.

After the four discussions were concluded, a decidedly presidential podium was brought to the stage. Fonda was the first to speak on this stage, saying that tackling climate change would be her life’s work as long as the Earth continued to own it. She had some nice words about the fossil fuel industry, crediting Bloomberg for bringing people together to do more on climate change, calling his convening power a “superpower.” Fonda then gave the stage to Bloomberg, who praised Biden’s climate change policies, saying: “From Joe’s first day on the job, when he brought the US back into the Paris Agreement. He has wisely put the fight against climate change at the center of his work to strengthen the economy – and shows how the two go hand in hand.”

And the last person to take the presidential stage was the president himself, where Biden began by emphasizing the seriousness and urgency of the climate crisis. He told how he has seen “more acreage burn to the ground than the state of Maryland.” Biden stated: “The climate is in crisis and there is one existential threat facing all nations.” He then summarized the various climate-related policies he had introduced over the past four years. “The United States has reaffirmed America’s position as the world leader on climate,” Biden claimed. “We are leading a comprehensive effort to work with countries to reduce global emissions and limit global warming to 1.5°C.” He made connections between tackling the climate crisis and economic growth, such as saying: “When I think about the climate, I think about jobs.”

During his speech, he did not mention former US President Donald Trump by name, but did mention the words “my predecessor” several times. Biden recalled, among other things, how his “predecessor” withdrew the US from the Paris climate accords and claimed that “all historic changes [in climate action that took place over the past four years] is in stark contrast to my predecessor.” Biden also said, “When Kamala and I came into power, nothing was done.” He also emphasized that “1727682325 the clean energy market is booming” and “it’s time to go big.”

Speaking of big, three big things came out of this forum. One is that political discourse in general needs to adopt more of the tone reflected in this forum – where everyone recognizes the scale and severity of the climate crisis and focuses on solutions and taking action. Second, key organizations have taken action to tackle the climate crisis. The third clear point, however, is that current actions alone will not be enough. There are still too many political and business leaders trying to prevent more from being done to address this crisis, which has gone from urgent to really urgent to really, really urgent in recent years. Yet too many people still remain apathetic towards this crisis. And this is absolutely not how we should do it, honey.