Climate Week NYC arrives at a telling moment. The world has just lived through the hottest August in recorded history, with heatwaves, floods, and wildfires affecting communities across the globe. Yet many business and government leaders have become a lot less vocal on urgent environmental and social challenges. With climate effects multiplying, many lofty net zero commitments have recently come back down to Earth with a bump.
We have seen missed deadlines for setting meaningful science-based targets, high-value opportunities such as AI have led to increased absolute emissions, and some companies are moving away from goals entirely by declaring they would be unrealistic without wider systemic transformation.
