The largest climate summit for five years is being held in New York this week, ahead of fresh high-level talks in Paris next year.

image expired

Speaking at the Summit, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon told world leaders, business and finance representatives and civil society groups, "The human, environmental and financial cost of climate change is fast becoming unbearable… I am asking you to lead. We must cut emissions. Science says they must peak by 2020 and decline sharply thereafter. By the end of this century we must be carbon neutral."

Mr Ban said "We need all hands on deck [to] set the world on a new course."

On Sunday, over 400,000 people concerned about climate change walked through New York, at the same time People's Marches were held elsewhere around the world.

World leaders at the Climate Summit unveiled plans for a Green Climate Fund to support developing countries working towards a low-emissions future. Regional government leaders and businesses also pledged to cut emissions, increase resilience to climate change and support farmers.

Financial institutions and even oil and gas companies pledged to take action on emissions or at least fund climate proofing work during the Summit in New York, and China made its first pledge to take action on climate change; Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli said emission's in China will soon peak and promised China – which currently has the highest output of polluting emissions worldwide – will become much more carbon efficient by 2020.

Even so, two of the world's top polluters (China and India) did not see fit to send their heads of state, and some key players (including Russia, Canada and Australia) did not even send a senior delegation. US President Barack Obama warned in his speech that climate change is progressing faster than efforts to address the problem.

Some eminent climate scientists have condemned their colleagues for downplaying the threats of climate change to allow for such gradual efforts as were displayed in New York this week, and to keep business and political leaders 'onside'. Manchester University professor Kevin Anderson, who has called on governments to abandon the "obsession" with growth and focus on health, food and shelter, has also said, "Contrary to the claims of many climate sceptics, scientists repeatedly and severely underplay the implications of their analyses. When it comes to avoiding a 2°C rise, 'impossible' is translated into 'difficult but doable', whereas 'urgent and radical' emerge as 'challenging' – all to appease the god of economics. Put bluntly, climate change commitments are incompatible with short to medium-term economic growth."

World Farmers' Organisation backs climate smart agriculture commitments

Former NFU president Peter Kendall, who now heads the World Farmers' Organisation (WFO), was also present, "to generate political will towards farmers and agriculture… and advance action on the ground that will reduce emissions and build resilience to the impacts of climate change for agriculture communities."

Kendall said, "Farmers are on the frontline of the climate change agenda. Farmers are not only directly impacted by climate change, but are also vital in implementing solutions we need to in order to adapt and mitigate.

"Farmers, especially women farmers, have daily interaction with the environment. Thus farmers are key drivers in the development of sustainable agricultural practices that provide food and renewable materials to support livelihoods. We must reposition farmers at the centre of the agriculture sector to become more resilient to climate risks."

WFO took part in the UN Secretary-General's launch of the Global Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture at the Summit. Climate-Smart agriculture (CSA) is a set of agricultural practices, polices and research priorities that leaders hope will allow farmers to achieve both adaptation and mitigation benefits.

The WFO president said, "Farmers are often marginalized in global policy dialogues on agriculture-related matters. The UN could play a significant role to strengthen farmers’ involvement in such political discussions.” "

"Agriculture, climate, food security, and poverty reduction are inextricably linked," he continued. "Farmers, especially in developing countries, need the support of research centres to become more resilient to adapt to climate change, and to ensure higher crop yields. WFO highly supports the role of extensions and rural advisory services."

Mr Kendall called for voluntary schemes to reward farmers for switching to beneficial practices that could sequester carbon in soils or improve water quality, adding that he wanted to see an "incentive-based approach… as opposed to a penalty-based approach" to changing practices. He added that farm-based renewable energies, including biogas, but also biomass and biofuels, had a part to play in shifting from a fossil-fuel based economy.

Although the high-level meetings in New York were intended only to catalyse action ahead of concrete commitments which must be agreed on in Paris next year, after the disastrous Copenhagen Summit in 2009, campaigners were still highly sceptical of the pledges and the progress claimed by those leading the talks.

Dipti Bhatnagar, International Climate Justice and Energy coordinator with Friends of the Earth, said, "The Climate Summit was a fool's paradise out of touch with the climate emergency we are facing. The finance pledges tabled at the Summit had no specifics, no timelines, and nothing saying if they are about new and additional climate finance or simply aid pledged in the past and diverted from its original destination."

Dipti Bhatnagar continued, "The energy companies' pact is a purely voluntary pact: they are not under obligation to disclose their emissions. This pact is just one additional half-baked corporate measure, a drop in the ocean when it comes to saving the climate. But it will surely help companies greenwashing their dirty image."

FOE Europe's climate and energy campaigner Susann Scherbarth added, "What we need is a true energy transformation with people at its heart, which means getting away from vested corporate interests and investment in fossil fuels, and instead supporting community-controlled renewable energy."