Program of Events

• – 10:30am Keynote Address  
  Senior U.S. Government officials during this high-level session launched the U.S. Center at COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh.
• – 11:00am Implementing Climate Solutions for All of America  
  The next decade is critical, which is why it will take all of us – working together – to keep 1.5 degrees Celsius within reach. Across the United States, cities, states, tribal nations, businesses, investors, faith groups, colleges, youth organizations, leading laboratories, and others are providing solutions to the climate crisis. These groups’ innovative solutions create pathways to meet our climate goals during this decisive decade.
• – 12:00pm Nature Based Solutions for Climate, Society, and Biodiversity  
  Nature provides countless solutions to the climate crisis, and the United States has put nature-based solutions front and center in its plans to reduce emissions, adapt to climate impacts, and increase biodiversity. Forests, wetlands, grasslands, and other natural environments all play crucial roles, as do the various stakeholders working on conservation efforts to meet our climate goals.
• – 1:00pm Implementation-PLUS: Partnerships for Global Climate Solutions 
  The United States is working with partner countries and organizations to implement solutions to the climate crisis that will have significant, positive impacts around the world. During this session, speakers will discuss some of these solutions, including the Global Methane Pledge, the Green Shipping Challenge, the First Movers Coalition, and the President’s Emergency Plan for Adaptation and Resilience.
• – 2:00pm Investing in Our Future 
  To successfully combat the climate crisis the world needs to mobilize trillions of dollars of investments. Governments play a critical role in not only financing key aspects of the global transition to a net-zero economy but also shaping the environment so that all stakeholders can invest in our sustainable future.

While climate change impacts all countries, emerging economies are often particularly vulnerable because they lack the infrastructure, insurance, and other necessary resources to prepare for and adapt to the effects of our changing planet. Emerging economies are also becoming hubs for innovative climate solutions that utilize new technology and prioritize inclusive growth – projects that can and should use U.S. climate finance to maximize their development and climate impact. Join U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), U.S. government and partner country climate leaders, and innovative private sector partners as they discuss how to scale climate solutions on the ground in developing countries.

The Clean Energy Demand Initiative (CEDI) unlocks corporate investment in clean energy infrastructure around the world by bringing companies and countries together to advance policies and markets that enable corporate clean energy procurements. This event highlighted CEDI’s progress since it was launched with Secretary Kerry at COP26, with a focus on corporate efforts, country membership, and company-country engagements through CEDI.

Unprecedented investment in clean energy is needed in this critical decade to limit warming to 1.5 C and avert catastrophic impacts on communities worldwide. Join government, philanthropic, and private sector leaders as they introduce an innovative new approach to scaling up private capital to accelerate the deployment of renewables and retirement of fossil fuel assets in developing countries.

Well-designed development assistance programs to address poverty are essential to spur economies – but they are not enough in the face of climate change challenges for those on the front lines. The public and private sectors must join forces, mobilize resources, and focus efforts on major climate-related infrastructure and decarbonization projects. Enter green bonds and other green blended finance solutions that the U.S. Government’s Millennium Challenge Corporation is using with partner countries. Indonesia, Zambia, Mozambique and others are testing these innovative financing models to unlock private capital. For example – $50-$80 million in MCC grant funding could leverage as much as $500-$800 million in project finance, making a bigger impact that can be scaled up. Join the United States Department of Treasury, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), The Nature Conservancy (TNC), and JP Morgan for a discussion on how green finance can contribute to meeting Africa’s $180-380 billion climate investment gap and how both the public and private sectors can push the envelope on green finance.

This event showcased the importance of public finance to meeting global adaptation and resiliency goals and will highlight U.S. commitment to work with partners on solutions. The panelists shared experiences with innovative funding tools and discussed lessons learned, challenges, and opportunities for accessing post-disaster finance as well as mobilizing private sector financing for adaptation.

Climate solutions require new approaches and diverse voices. Interdisciplinary, cross cultural, and immersive learning experiences are critical to achieving climate goals. This program showcased initiatives that promote student leadership in global climate dialogs.

The Department of State with founding and future partners of the Connecting Climate Entrepreneurs partnership (launched at COP26) held a pitch competition showcase featuring climate solutions ready to scale. The showcase at COP27 provided four featured startups from around the world an opportunity to pitch their solution on a global stage for an opportunity to win a range of prizes. The pitch competition was an avenue to highlight pre-seed climate entrepreneurs as well as to showcase USG commitment to identifying and implementing climate solutions.

This past year has been a year of food and water crises, from Pakistan’s floods, to the Horn of Africa food crisis, to Madagascar’s drought early in the year. The US government has a proven track record of supporting locally-led adaptation and helping countries enhance their resilience to future crises. USAID, USDA, MCC and DFC have been funding and operating food security and water security programs for decades using techniques like early warning systems, food loss and waste reduction, sustainable water resource management, improving trade and market access, and climate-smart agriculture intensification. Under PREPARE, the US government’s cornerstone climate change adaptation programs, announced last year at COP-26, we will be able to do even more. During this discussion we highlighted the progress we have made on food and water security, market access and agriculture, and adaptation successes over the past year, with a particular focus on programs that have benefitted Africa, as well as current and future commitments to do more under PREPARE.

This event demonstrated U.S. leadership at the nexus of climate and health, including via partnerships underway domestically and internationally. Panelists described ways that these initiatives are promoting mitigation and adaptation in the context of both public health and health care. The session also identified next steps for this vital, life-saving work.

The Clean Cooking & Climate Consortium (4C) was formed by the USEPA and partners to encourage countries to put clean cooking targets in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), which more than 65 countries have done. The Consortium is providing national governments with evidence and guidance on how best to articulate, plan, and meet the cooking-related goals in their NDCs; to access opportunities for implementation support and potential funding, and providing guidance on program design and implementation, as well as measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) for clean cooking initiatives. Representatives from Ghana and Uganda described their cooking implementation activities, and speakers discussed how reducing climate emissions from cooking is essential to achieving our climate goals and will have the co-benefit of improving the environment, health, gender, and livelihoods

We’re running two simultaneous races to stay inside the 1.5C guardrail, and we need to win both to keep the planet livable. We need to succeed in the sprint to cut methane and other super climate pollutants this decade, so that we can slow warming, avoid dangerous climate tipping points, and stay in the marathon to decarbonize by 2050. This event focused on the science-backed solutions and strategies for cutting non-CO2 greenhouse gases that can take us around the curve toward the net-zero finish line — while improving air quality and ensuring the health of humans and the planet.

A cohort of U.S. Senators spoke at this event on Congress’s accomplishments to advance U.S. climate commitments; what opportunities and challenges are ahead for the 118th Congress; and what should Congress prioritize in the years ahead to ensure a lasting U.S. commitment to addressing the climate crisis. The represented Senators are some of the Senate’s fiercest climate champions who have fought for decades to advance comprehensive U.S. climate action. They’ve experienced both the highs and lows of this ongoing effort and share their perspectives on how Congress has recently made progress and how we build on these successes.

Launched one year ago at COP27, the First Movers Coalition is a flagship public-private partnership between the U.S. Government and the World Economic Forum, creating purchasing demand for near-zero technologies in hard-to-abate sectors. At this event, key players from across the ecosystem, including public sector and private sector leaders, discussed how the First Movers Coalition have begun to spur investment and supply in required climate technologies, along with what still must occur in the coming year.

The path towards reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 has come more into focus with the recent enactment of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in the United States. Hear from U.S. business executives about how anticipated shifts in clean energy investment, workforce development, community engagement, daily operations, and deployment of clean technology solutions, will usher in a new era for the U.S. economy. Find out how the IRA is catalyzing greater private investment and how new partnerships across the public and private sectors can help deliver those outcomes.

This robust U.S. energy, climate and conservation policy agenda will address the global energy crisis while working to solve the climate challenge. These policymakers have been crafting a plan to have America, along with partner nations develop the technologies needed to make the global clean energy transition cheaper and faster.

Launched at COP26, the Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate (AIM for Climate) is a joint initiative created by the United States and the United Arab Emirates that has mobilized new investments in climate-smart agriculture and food systems innovation to enable as many solutions as possible at the intersection of food security and climate. At COP27, AIM for Climate with the support of a diverse and influential community, announced new partnerships and investments to build resilience, contribute to mitigation efforts, and enhance food security as well as previewed the road to COP28.

Senior White House officials and leading private and public sector partners discussed how governments can use the power of procurement to green supply chains and drive emissions reductions. With over $630 billion in annual spending, the U.S. Federal Government is the largest purchaser in the world and is advancing climate risk disclosure and climate target requirements for suppliers that will drive efficiency and climate action across global supply chains.

This event highlighted the unique attributes of small modular reactors for i) advancing deep decarbonization through efficiently and economically producing clean hydrogen fuels, ii) establishing new avenues to achieve food security through production of clean ammonia for fertilizer production, and iii) accelerating energy security for countries in Europe suffering from natural gas supply interruptions. And the United States announced additional technical assistance for partners across Europe as a demonstration of its commitment to these goals.

This session highlighted the recent milestones of launching the more than $3 billion Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities effort and nearly $20 billion Inflation Reduction Act agricultural conservation investments, and emphasize the public and private collaboration necessary to meet U.S. agriculture’s climate commitments—all while continuing to produce the food, feed and fiber required to meet food security needs in the U.S. and around the world. Secretary Vilsack moderated a panel discussion featuring critical perspectives from agriculture industry, farm associations, non-governmental organizations, and producers working together to achieve climate-smart agricultural production at scale. Featured speakers are participants in Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodity projects, highlighting different agricultural commodities, perspectives, and approaches.

Food insecurity has increased dramatically since 2014. In 2022, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has continued to drive prices of food and fertilizers to record high levels, showing just how vulnerable food systems are to disruptions. The inability to access fertilizers and use them efficiently hampers agricultural productivity in many low-income countries, while in many middle- and high-income countries, more than 50 percent of applied fertilizers do not reach the intended crop, increasing farmer costs. Increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of mineral fertilizer use is an important component of the solution in both contexts. At this event, Ministers of agriculture and international development came together to discuss the challenges of fertilizer shortages worldwide and announce new funding from the Global Fertilizer Challenge to help improve soil health and increase fertilizer efficiency in low- and mid- income countries.

This event highlighted US progress Plan to Conserve Global Forests, and the opportunities and challenges of achieving zero-deforestation by 2030. This panel discussion featured speakers from the U.S. government and business community taking action to support global efforts.

Climate and environmental hazards are reshaping our world and exacerbating existing challenges of political instability, conflict, food security, and related humanitarian crises. Through the U.S. Strategy to Prevent Conflict and Promote Stability, the United States is partnering with priority countries and other partners to develop evidence-based, coherent approaches to prevent and address the complex drivers of fragility and conflict, including vulnerability to climate hazards. This session provided an overview of how the U.S. Government – led by the Department of State, USAID, and the Department of Defense – is leveraging the GFA to address the interconnected challenges of fragility, conflict, and climate change.

Women, girls, gender-diverse persons, and other marginalized populations play a critical role in addressing the climate crisis, including limiting global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius and reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. At COP26, the United States announced a renewed whole-of-government commitment to promoting gender equity in mitigating and responding to climate change, underscored by the associated climate strategic priority in the U.S. National Gender Strategy. In this session at COP27, local climate leaders and key U.S. Government partners reported on progress in this area and discussed a vision for the future of sustainable, local, and gender-responsive climate action.

In a world increasingly shaped by a changing climate, a resilient future will require collaborative and innovative partnerships across sectors, nations and regions. This event highlighted two international partnerships, the Local2030 Islands Network and the Renewable Energy for Latin America and the Caribbean (RELAC) initiative, as well as their U.S. Federal Agency and international partners, working towards ambitious and necessary net-zero and climate resilience goals. Speakers engaged with the Local2030 Islands Network and RELAC initiative participated in a moderated roundtable to discuss the importance of international partnerships for climate resilience, sustainable development and net-zero pathways, and highlighted progress they have made towards their goals.

The U.S. government and U.S. firms are working in partnership with the Egyptian government to mobilize technology, finance, and expertise in support of Egypt’s green growth agenda. This event recapped this year’s GreenTech Business Delegation to Cairo and will feature companies working in Egypt, in some cases with U.S. government technical or financial assistance, to advance efforts in areas such as green hydrogen, methane reduction, and waste to energy.

This event convened a group of Indigenous and non-Indigenous experts to discuss the meaningful inclusion of Indigenous and Traditional Environmental Knowledge (ITEK) in national, regional, and international climate science, policy, and action. Hear from leaders in the knowledge justice space on how ITEK can enhance global understanding of climate change, its impacts, and solutions for creating a better future for all.

Ocean-based climate solutions offer the opportunity to pivot from problem to solution while also creating jobs, spurring economic growth, and helping meet the sustainable food and energy needs of a growing global population. There has been a groundswell of momentum on ocean-based climate solutions from both governments and non-state actors – but the focus must now be on turning ambition into action. This event brought together governments from the Ocean Panel to make announcements, showcased examples of leadership on ocean-climate action, and highlighted opportunities for collaboration and partnership with industry and local communities to advance ambitious outcomes for the ocean and climate.

The Net Zero World (NZW) Showcase highlighted the U.S. government’s flagship initiative to support the global shift to net zero. Launched at COP26, NZW partners with countries to transition their energy sector to net zero and this event (1) showcased accomplishments since COP26, (2) announced new members and programming, and (3) highlighted country partner visions to transition to a resilient and inclusive net zero energy system.

Subnational action at the city and state level is essential to the development and implementation of strong climate mitigation and resilience goals – both in the U.S. and around the world. This event brought together representatives from the national and subnational levels to highlight the commitments and achievements of cities and states, the barriers they face, and the ways that multi-level coordination can be improved for the sake of enhanced ambition. It also officially launched the Subnational Climate Action Leaders’ Exchange (SCALE) initiative, a new USG-led partnership to support cities and states in the development and implementation of net-zero, climate-resilient roadmaps.

Energy Earthshots™ will drive the major innovation breakthroughs that we know we must achieve to solve the climate crisis, reach America’s 2050 net-zero carbon goals, and create the jobs of the new clean energy economy. The U.S. Department of Energy has launched six Energy Earthshots targeting the most challenging technical problems across our energy economy – the Hydrogen Shot, Long Duration Storage Shot, Enhanced Geothermal Shot, Floating Offshore Wind Shot, Industrial Heat Shot, and the Carbon Negative Shot, which was announced at COP26.

The U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm will host a dynamic panel discussion on the impact to-date of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act. With investments of hundreds of billions of dollars infusing the transition to a clean energy economy, this panel will focus on how the federal government is working with industry, NGOs, and state and local governments to turbocharge U.S. climate action, moving the nation toward industrial decarbonization and driving down costs for the rapid deployment of cheap, clean, energy technologies.

Conservation efforts are complex and often tenuous, particularly when they aim to promote meaningful and effective involvement from Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLCs). This session highlighted examples of how carbon markets have been harnessed to serve and empower indigenous communities. The panel featured perspectives of indigenous people from two countries and their partners, presenting lessons for moving forward, together, to address the global challenge of climate change.

The ocean is critical to the economic, social, and environmental well-being of people and the planet, and plays a vital role in supporting biodiversity and providing ecosystem services, including regulating our climate and adapting to climate impacts. Achieving the conservation of 30 percent of the global ocean demands ambitious action to conserve jurisdictional ocean waters, as well as enhanced international collaboration for the conservation and sustainable use of areas beyond our respective jurisdictions. This event highlighted the role of the Our Ocean Conference as a pivotal moment to spur global ocean action, including through actions related to the implementation of the Ocean Conservation Pledge (OCP). The OCP aims to support the protection of the global ocean by encouraging countries to commit to conserve or protect at least 30 percent of their jurisdictional ocean waters by 2030.

USAID presented on current efforts at building partnerships with Indigenous Peoples and local communities for climate action and the agency’s contribution toward the Forest Tenure IPLC Pledge. The hosts invited Indigenous Leaders to discuss how climate change disproportionately impacts Indigenous Peoples and how multi-stakeholder collaborations and partnerships are necessary for effective climate action.

Achieving the goal laid out by the Biden Administration to put the maritime shipping sector on a pathway to zero emissions by 2050 requires innovative, high-ambition collaboration across the value chain. In alignment with the Administration’s recently announced Green Shipping Challenge for COP27, this session featured perspectives from across the shipping value chain – from ports to academia to cargo owners to maritime industry – discussing how they’re contributing to the creation of concrete, ambitious decarbonization pathways.

Recent legislation and federal programs represent the biggest climate investments in U.S. history and Governors, mayors, and other local leaders are uniquely positioned to help deliver the benefits to communities across America. Top state and local officials from America Is All In and the U.S. Climate Alliance discussed with top Administration officials on the work being done – and still to come – to make this transformation a reality and the value of partnership between all levels of government.

National governments are accelerating their nation’s achievement of the Paris Agreement goal by greening their own government operations. Country participants in the “Net-Zero Government Initiative” declare their commitment to achieving net-zero emissions from national government operations no later than 2050 and commit to developing a roadmap that outlines outlining their government’s pathway for meeting that net-zero commitment. In this launch event for the Net-Zero Government Initiative, high-level officials of participating countries from different geographic regions announced their countries’ ambitions in decarbonizing their national government operations, highlighted successes and challenges, and discussed where international collaboration and private sector partnerships can accelerate the transition.

In March, the UN Secretary General tasked the World Meteorological Organization to lead UN “early warning for all” initiative to ensure every person in the world have access to early warning systems within the next five years. This is because the impacts of climate change are no longer avoidable, and one way that we can help people adapt is by giving them advance warning of impending climate disasters, so they, and their governments, can take early action to reduce impacts. The US government has supported countries to design and operate climate-related early warning systems around the world for decades. At COP26, President Biden announced PREPARE, the U.S.’s cornerstone global adaptation program. Under PREPARE, funding for climate information services is increased, helping the USG responds to the call for early warning for all and increase co-production and use of climate information.

In addition, USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) has just announced a commitment for up to $75 million over the next five years to close the early warning gap and advancing capacity in developing countries through new agreements with NOAA and World Meteorological Organization.

In this talk, U.S. government agencies highlighted new and ongoing climate adaptation success stories under FEWSNET, SERVIR, and Climate and Weather Ready Nations, how to adapt them to the needs of diverse groups, including youth, and other marginalized groups, and where better coordination and more funding are most urgently needed so we can address these needs.

This session featured the launch of the new Climate Smart Network, a platform developed by the International Trade Centre, in partnership with the U.S. Department of State, in which small to medium enterprises can showcase their climate smart attributes, compliance to environmental or climate criteria of established certifications, or their commitment to low-carbon practices.  Representatives from the Department of State, ITC, an Egyptian medium sized enterprise, and a major U.S. company will also discuss challenges and opportunities arising from the low-carbon transition in global value chains and ways to support small businesses in the green transition.   This platform will serve as a tool for large buyers to search for products that meet their climate goals and help to diversify their supply chains.

In this interactive session, participants proposed global climate solutions and see climate and equity results in real time.  In the past two years, 128 U.S. Members of Congress were briefed with the same workshop.  The session explored interventions ranging from electric vehicles to carbon dioxide removal to carbon pricing and examine impacts such as environmental justice, sea level rise, crop yield, and biodiversity.  En-ROADS was built with the best available science and tested against the full suite of integrated assessment models.