Leaders from business, government and civil society around the world announced on Thursday, August 16, 2018 that they would be delegates to the Global Climate Action Summit, which is to be convened this September in San Francisco, California in USA.
The leaders from six continents will join the current Co-Chairs: Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Patricia Espinosa; Special Representative for Climate Change Affairs of China Minister Xie Zhenhua; Chair of the Mahindra Group Anand Mahindra; the United Nations Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth Jayathma Wickramanayake; UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Climate Action Michael R. Bloomberg; and California Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. at the crucial Summit.
The first group of speakers and delegates announced on Thursday include President Dr. Hilda C. Heine of the Marshall Islands; Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama of Fiji; Canadian Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Catherine McKenna; Mayor of San Francisco London Breed; Mayor of Quelimane in Mozambique Manuel de Araújo; musician Dave Matthews; CEO of Unilever Paul Polman; Chairman and co-CEO of Salesforce, Marc Benioff; CEO of Dalmia Cement Mahendra Singhi; Executive Director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre Johan Rockström; Chairman and CEO of Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson; C40 Chair and Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo; and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.
Others are actor and activist Alec Baldwin; world-renowned chimpanzee expert Jane Goodall; astronaut Mae Jemison; NBC News chief foreign affairs correspondent and host of MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” Andrea Mitchell; Mayor of Houston Sylvester Turner; Director of Public Health and the Environment Department, World Health Organisation, Dr. Maria Neira; former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm; former U.S. Vice President Al Gore; Mayor of Rotterdam, Netherlands, Ahmed Aboutaleb; European Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy Miguel Arias Cañete; former Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus; and former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
Civil society leaders in this first wave of announcements include Mission 2020 Convenor and former Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Christiana Figueres; Oxfam International Executive Director Winnie Byanyima; NextGen America founder and President Tom Steyer; General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) Sharan Burrow; news commentator and founder of Dream Corps Van Jones; Green for All CEO Vien Truong; Conservation International CEO Dr. M. Sanjayan; AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka; and Chair of Slum Dwellers International (SDI) and Founding Director of the Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Center (SPARC) Sheela Patel.
This first wave of delegates comes as the Summit has published the latest draft programme for the Sept. 12‑14 event online, which can be viewed at globalclimateactionsummit.org/program.
The Summit will open with an astronaut’s view of the beautiful, fragile earth, produced for the Summit by National Geographic and narrated by actor-director Robert Redford before pivoting into details on the science of climate change and the risks humanity is facing from extreme weather events and the rising costs to economies, lives and livelihoods.
Later in the day, a series of events and dialogues will celebrate the extraordinary achievements and wave of momentum underway since the adoption of the historic Paris climate change agreement of 2015.
It will also underline new and continuing efforts underway across the Summit’s five challenge areas of energy, economic growth, sustainable communities, land and sea, and climate investments toward the next milestone of “peaking” pollution worldwide by 2020 as a prelude to decarbonising the global economy.
The second day of sessions will focus on crosscutting areas of climate action and climate impacts. This will highlight the activities of leading companies, cities, states and investors actively committing to climate action and racing toward a decarbonised future.
Nick Nuttall, communications director for the Global Climate Action Summit, said: “There has been enormous anticipation about the release of the draft program and the names of the thousands of leaders coming, many of whom are champions internationally and within their own countries, communities and sectors. Today we are delighted to begin the long but exciting process of announcing delegates from East and West, North and South. These are the first but certainly not the last, so please watch for updates on our website or via social media.”
