Young people and Big Oil executives will join world leaders in September for the most high-profile summit on climate change since the 2015 UN conference that led to the Paris Agreement.
Why it matters: The New York event is aimed at encouraging countries to increase their pledges to the Paris deal, in the face of rising global carbon emissions, falling investment in renewable energy and an American president who denies there’s a problem at all.
Driving the news: The United Nations is hosting the event and there will be two notable developments outside its Manhattan headquarters...
- On Sept. 20, thousands of people, led by students, are signing up to walk out of their jobs and schools to demand the world stop using fossil fuels. Millions could participate globally in what organizers say will be the largest such movement.
- On Sept. 23, the world’s biggest oil and natural gas producers will huddle at an invite-only forum, where CEOs are expected to face critical questions from environmental experts.
What’s next: This is all building up to the UN's 2020 climate-change conference. That’s when countries are expected to formally establish more aggressive commitments. Next year is also when President Trump plans to formally withdraw from the Paris deal.
Read more about the impacts of climate change we're tracking:
- Climate change's crucial moment
- Fed to host its first conference dedicated to climate change
- Climate change arrives in Democratic politics
- Retail's climate cost is going up
- TV news' climate change bias
Read Amy's weekly Harder Line column, which will tackle this topic Monday, in the daily energy newsletter Generate by Ben Geman. Sign up here.