By Abbas Nazil
UN Climate Change Executive Secretary, Simon Stiell, has called for faster climate action, urging governments, businesses and investors to move from commitments to practical implementation and expand clean solutions capable of cutting greenhouse gas emissions and strengthening resilience.
Stiell made the call on Monday, September 21, 2026, while speaking at the Build Clean Now Industry Acceleration Summit in New York City, where he stressed the importance of stronger international cooperation in tackling the climate crisis.
He said keeping the rise in global temperatures within 1.5 degrees Celsius remained essential, even as the world was now certain to temporarily exceed the threshold.
According to Stiell, countries must respond by strengthening resilience and reducing greenhouse gas emissions at a much faster pace to bring global temperature increases back below 1.5 degrees Celsius as quickly as possible.
He said international cooperation centred on implementing existing climate commitments would be critical to changing the current trajectory.
Stiell noted that cooperation convened by the United Nations, alongside national climate efforts, had helped reduce projections for global temperature increases from more than four degrees Celsius to about 2.6 degrees Celsius.
He described the progress as significant but said it remained insufficient to prevent severe climate impacts.
The UN official also pointed to the rapid expansion of renewable energy as evidence that climate action could produce measurable results.
He cited data from the International Renewable Energy Agency showing that global renewable energy capacity additions reached a record 693 gigawatts last year.
According to him, the expansion of renewable energy helped the world avoid almost half a trillion dollars in fossil fuel costs, while clean energy attracted more than two trillion dollars in investment during the same period.
Stiell, however, warned that such progress should not lead to complacency, saying it should instead demonstrate that climate action was capable of delivering results and countering misinformation about the transition.
“This is the moment to mobilise more.
To narrow the gap between pledges and action on the ground,” he said.
He identified implementation as a major focus of the forthcoming COP31 in Türkiye and COP32 in Ethiopia, urging countries, businesses and investors to come to COP31 with practical solutions capable of accelerating climate action.
Stiell said COP31 negotiations could help strengthen implementation by improving institutions, accelerating technology transfer, expanding access to higher-quality climate finance and supporting countries pursuing just transitions.
He also highlighted the role of the Action Agenda in bringing together governments, businesses, investors, cities and regions to deliver climate action across the real economy.
The UN Climate Change Executive Secretary urged stakeholders to respond to targets set by the COP31 Presidency, including its objective of increasing electricity’s share to 35 per cent of global energy use by 2035.
On climate finance, Stiell called for stronger efforts to fulfil existing commitments and improve access to funding, stressing that public and private finance, climate funds and multilateral development banks would all be required to advance the Baku-to-Belém Roadmap towards its 1.3 trillion dollar objective.
He also addressed carbon dioxide removals, saying the technology would be needed alongside deep reductions in fossil fuel emissions and the protection of natural carbon sinks.
“Absolutely not as a replacement for transitioning away from all fossil fuels.
But in addition to it,” Stiell said.
He further called for greater use of artificial intelligence in addressing climate challenges, including improving early warning systems and increasing the efficiency of electricity grids.
However, he warned that the growing energy demand associated with artificial intelligence was also contributing to increased emissions from coal, oil and gas, while placing pressure on energy costs and worsening wider inequalities.
Stiell urged technology companies to establish credible climate targets, improve energy efficiency, disclose their energy and water consumption as well as power data, and ensure that data centres are powered by renewable energy.
He said the scale of the climate crisis was increasingly out of step with the speed and quality of the global response, with climate impacts already affecting health, food production, livelihoods, energy costs and national economies.
According to him, governments seeking to control inflation, strengthen their economies and protect citizens must also reduce dependence on fossil fuels and strengthen resilience to climate-related impacts.
Stiell also pointed to the growing competitiveness of renewable energy, noting that renewables had overtaken coal as the world’s leading source of electricity last year.
“The shift to clean energy is now irreversible,” he said, urging countries to strengthen climate multilateralism and build on progress achieved under the Paris Agreement.
“At COP30 every nation agreed – the Paris Agreement is working, and we will make it go further and faster,” Stiell said.
