New York City — International businesses and policymakers gathered in New York City for the annual Climate Week and related United Nations General Assembly meetings.

The climate-themed series of events kicked off on Sunday afternoon, with a strong emphasis on the theme of "time." Subsequently, several companies and organizations chose to make climate-related announcements on the official first day of Climate Action Week.

Announcements included: a commitment to triple nuclear energy financing, the launch of a national forum for U.S. green banks, and two commitments related to carbon removal.

Here is a brief rundown of some of this week's announcements:

Financial institutions including Citi and Goldman Sachs back nuclear energy financing

In the action plan of the 2023 UN COP28 meeting, 25 countries including the United States signeda declaration to triple nuclear energy capacity by 2050. To support this goal, 14 financial institutions, including Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley, at an event held Monday at Rockefeller CenterNet Zero Nuclearinitiative forum,announced their support for the declaration。

John Podesta, senior advisor to U.S. President Joe Biden for international climate policy, delivered opening remarks at the event, praising financiers for taking action and "committing to the moment."

"Our shared mission is clear: nuclear energy is clean energy," Podesta told attendees. "If we are to ensure a livable planet, build secure and sustainable supply chains for clean energy, and promote global prosperity, we must ensure nuclear power plays its role."

Other financial institutions supporting the declaration include Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Ares Management, Bank of America, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Brookfield, Crédit Agricole, Guggenheim Securities, Rothschild & Co, Segra Capital Management, and Société Générale.

U.S. Green Banks launch national partnership

On Monday, the U.S. Green Bank Alliance officially launched. These green banks—referring to public, quasi-public, or nonprofit financial institutions focused on accelerating the clean energy transition—are seeking to share information nationwide to better address climate-related risks and solve problems collectively.

U.S. Green Bank 50founding members said at a press conference Monday that they had been organizing voluntarily for over a year before the launch, sharing how to leverage funding provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act.

The coalition, composed of more than 40 public and nonprofit financial institutions, aims to serve as a complementary forum to the work of the Coalition for Green Capital (CGC) and as a "pure learning center," Kirsten Stasio, CEO of the Nevada Clean Energy Fund, told reporters. The CGC has received $5 billion from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and, in August,launched the first national green bank。

"We see GB50 as an important network and partner for CGC, helping to think about how to distribute EPA funds at the national level and implement them in communities across our respective regions, while leveraging this extraordinary capability that GB50 possesses," Stasio said.

Frontier signs first river lime carbon removal agreement

The Frontier corporate decarbonization initiative, backed by Stripe, Alphabet, Meta, JPMorgan Chase, and others, announced Monday afirst-of-its-kind offtake agreement。

with CarbonRun, a Canadian carbon removal and river restoration company. Under the agreement, Frontier's corporate carbon offset buyers will pay CarbonRun $25.4 million to remove more than 55,000 tons of carbon dioxide between 2025 and 2029 through the "river lime" method, according to a press release.

The river lime method involves adding crushed limestone to acidified rivers to repair damage caused by acid rain; the method has also been found to enhance rivers' ability to absorb carbon dioxide from the air, the press release said. Frontier stated that CarbonRun's technology has a "credible near-term trajectory" toward reducing carbon removal costs to below $100 per ton.

"River lime for carbon removal is low-cost, scalable, and measurable. However, compared to its potential, it remains underexplored and underfunded," Nan Ransohoff, head of climate at Stripe and head of Frontier, said in the press release. "CarbonRun's work will help build a more rigorous foundation for assessment and measurement for broader aquatic carbon removal methods."

Climeworks signs agreement with British Airways

Climeworks, a carbon removal company operating the world's two largest direct air capture and storage facilities, announced Monday thatBritish Airways has become its third airline customer。

British Airways joinsSWISS and the Lufthansa Group, becoming a customer of the carbon removal company in the aviation sector. Climeworks said in a press release that the agreement will initially involve "small-scale" purchases but is designed to "help stimulate and subsequently scale the carbon removal market."

"Without carbon removal, the aviation industry cannot achieve net zero," said Carrie Harris, Director of Sustainability at British Airways, in a press release. "While this is a small purchase compared to our total emissions, we are buying these carbon removal credits to help stimulate the carbon removal market and lay the groundwork for the large-scale changes needed to meet our climate goals."