For one week, New York will be the center of the money-oriented fight to slow climate change

NEW YORK (AP) — Efforts to save the pale blue dot called Earth are all about the green, that is, the money to finance the transition to renewable energy sources like wind and solar power.

The annual United Nations General Assembly places a special emphasis on how to raise trillions of dollars to help poorer countries transition away from gas, oil and coal, which emit greenhouse gases and heat the planet. They also need financial help to deal with the damage that warming is already causing.

There will also be a future UN special summit linking climate change and biodiversity with other pressing issues such as war, and another UN special session on the threat of rising sea levels. And the presidents of the climate talks in 2023, 2024 and 2025 want to push countries through their own efforts to make a new round of drastic reductions in pollution.

This week marks the start of a two-month sprint that will see high-level conferences in three different cities on three continents, which one expert says could be humanity's “last chance” to stay within globally agreed limits on global warming. After Climate Week in New York, the 29th UN climate talks will take place in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. Then the leaders of the 20 biggest countries will travel to Rio de Janeiro. And early next year, all countries in the world must present new national targets to reduce emissions of heat-trapping gases.

“The failure or success of the landmark 2015 Paris climate agreement will be decided in the next eight or nine months, when countries present their next round of proposed emissions reduction targets,” said longtime climate negotiations analyst Alden Meyer of the European think tank E3G. “If these don't live up to expectations, this really is our last chance.”

Yalchin Rafiyev, chief negotiator for the presidency of the UN climate conference in Baku in November, said the week in New York was “a very important milestone event for us”.

Not only will climate negotiators be in New York, but so will their bosses, the heads of state, Rafiyev told the Associated Press. If informal talks stall or new ideas emerge, especially on the thorny financial issue, negotiators can quickly consult with their leaders, which could help move things forward, he said.

What is also underlined is the money that is needed to solve the problems.

“It's clearly about the Greens,” said Ani Dasgupta, president of the World Resources Institute. “It's about making the world greener, not about getting the Greens to make the world greener.”

And where better to talk about it than in New York City, the capital of capital, said Dasgupta.

Developing countries, which are home to more than 80 percent of the world's population, say they need financial help to curb their rising use of fossil fuels. They cannot afford it otherwise.

Poorer countries point to historic emissions – carbon dioxide stays in the air for hundreds of years – that mostly come from the industrialized world. These richer countries can now more easily afford to switch to renewable energy like solar and wind. Almost two-thirds of current carbon dioxide emissions come from countries that are not considered industrialized.

This is the week when “the calls of the global majority will be very loud and clear” that this financial climate assistance for poor countries is critical, said PowerShift Africa's Mohamed Adow, a longtime climate analyst. They will do so on the UN podium, at external events during Climate Week and in one-on-one meetings between national leaders who are in town for the annual General Assembly, he said.

In 2009, rich countries set a goal of providing $100 billion in annual government climate aid to poor countries. However, this goal was not reached until 2022, years late. The main focus of the meeting in Azerbaijan is to set a new target for financial aid. And rich and poor countries disagree on how much aid should be provided, who should pay for it and what type of funding should be provided.

“Rich countries have failed to keep many of their previous promises and have repeatedly postponed them, citing new long-term financial targets, but they cannot postpone the matter any longer,” Adow said.

Dasgupta spoke of a chicken-and-egg problem: the rich countries asked the poor countries to go green before talking about money, and the poor countries said they needed money first.

Much more than ten years ago, when the Paris Climate Agreement was concluded, people are now aware that climate finance is crucial to reducing emissions, Dasgupta said.

The success of the 2025 climate talks, where the world will try to step up its efforts to significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions, depends on the financial situation in Baku in the autumn, said Fernanda Carvalho of the World Wildlife Fund.

The problem, however, is the price. Most experts believe that $100 billion a year is far too little. Earlier this year, UN climate commissioner Simon Stiell estimated the annual financial requirement at $2.4 trillion. Adow said the figure should not be determined by negotiating politicians, but by what countries need to accomplish the task.

“People say, 'Oh my God, we don't have $2 trillion,'” Dasgupta said. But that's less than 2% of global GDP, he added. The world spends more on fossil fuel subsidies, Adow said.

During Climate Week, companies and financial networks talk a lot about their environmental friendliness. Dasgupta said they need to try harder because the countries of the world cannot directly finance more than a trillion dollars.

“We need to get the finance ministers to talk to us, and the masters of the universe, the people who run New York City, the people who manage private capital, to talk to each other to make this happen,” Dasgupta said. “It's not just an environmental issue. It's about how we get the financing for the transition right. And there's a lot of work to be done.”

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