Industry is at the heart of the global transition to a net-zero economy, but transforming emissions-intensive sectors remains a complex challenge. During Climate Week, the LeadIT secretariat team will participate in several events and host a high-level dialogue on global cement decarbonization. LeadIT will also contribute to the High-Level Solutions Dialogue on Accelerating Green Industrialization convened by the UN Assistant Secretary-General and the UN Climate Action team (UNCAT)
About Climate Week
This year’s Climate Week NYC will focus on the energy, the impact and the action that can be driven together to deliver on global goals. The week is organised by the Climate Group, an international non-profit that has been working for climate action for over two decades by convening leaders across business and government. In coordination with the UN General Assembly, Climate Week NYC convenes decision-makers and experts shaping capital, policy and markets across sectors and regions.
Events
Monday 21st September – Global goal, local challenge: decarbonizing cement with UltraTech Cement Ltd
Organizer: LeadIT, Global Cement and Concrete Association
Where: One Vanderbilt
When: 14.00–15.30 EDT (by invitation only)
Cement and concrete are essential to infrastructure and economic development, yet its production is emissions-intensive, and its decarbonization depends on changes across energy systems, technologies, markets, and value chains. To achieve this will need credible, investable, and country-specific action. Cement is produced locally, under very different conditions, and a pathway that is technically or economically viable in one market may not be directly transferable to another. This roundtable dialogue will explore how we can move from a global cement decarbonization ambition to action that works in different national contexts?
Key questions
- From global pathway to country action: How can global cement decarbonization pathways inform national strategies and translate into actions that reflect different starting points and circumstances?
- Technology meets local reality: How can solutions such as alternative fuels, renewable energy, clinker substitution, and carbon capture be deployed at scale across different markets?
- What can international cooperation deliver? Where can governments, industry and international initiatives work together to accelerate technology deployment, mobilise finance, build capacity and share experience?
- Creating the conditions for investment: What policy frameworks and market signals are needed by cement producers?
- From individual action to sector transformation: What lessons from companies and countries that are already taking action can be replicated elsewhere and what prevents successful approaches from travelling across borders?
Wednesday 23rd September – Towards COP31: Making NDCs Investable: Electrification, Decarbonised Industry and Resilient Infrastructure
Organizer: Business Sweden
Where: Residence of the Consul General, Sweden
When: 09.00–10.30 EDT (by invitation only)
COP31 needs to advance the shift from ambition-setting to measurable implementation. Connecting NDCs with economic policy, infrastructure planning, financial instruments and real-economy project pipelines will be fundamental to this transition. By convening leaders from industry, finance, and government, the discussion will explore how local and regional implementation experiences can help inform the policy, finance and infrastructure priorities that needs to shape the COP31 agenda. Through the lenses of policy, finance and infrastructure, participants will identify practical pathways for accelerating deployment, mobilising investment and scaling solutions across interconnected energy, industrial and infrastructure systems.
Thursday 24th September – High-Level Solutions Dialogue on Accelerating Green Industrialization.
Organizer: United Nations Climate Action Team
Where: Dag Hammarskjöld Library Reading Room, UN HQ
When: 13.30–15.30 EDT (by invitation only)
The UN Secretary-General’s Climate Action Team (UNCAT), in conjunction with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the COP troika (Brazil, Türkiye and Ethiopia), is organizing a High-Level Solutions Dialogue on Accelerating Green Industrialization, building on last year’s Dialogue and subsequent developments in this area.
The 2026 dialogue will focus on practical solutions to accelerate green industrialization, particularly in Emerging Markets and Developing Economies (EMDEs). The discussion will also explore how innovative financial and de-risking mechanisms through a variety of enabling policies and demand-side measures – including green public procurement, product standards and other approaches that stimulate demand for low-carbon industrial products – can unlock investment, expand participation of low-carbon and sustainable value chains and support a just and inclusive industrial transition. The session will further address the role of international partnerships in supporting the efforts to advance green industrialization.
Thursday 24th September – Scaling FOAK to NOAK globally – using India as a climate commercialisation hub
Organizer: Bharatia and the Climate & Energy Transition FInance Initiative
Where: Business Iceland
When: 15.00–17.00 EDT
The climate transition does not suffer from a shortage of technologies. Thousands of climate solutions have already been developed and proven around the world. The greater challenge is moving them from successful early deployment to affordable, repeatable and financeable scale. This is particularly important for emerging markets and developing economies. Technologies developed for smaller, high-income markets frequently remain too expensive, too bespoke or insufficiently adapted for widespread emerging-market deployment.
India has the potential to become a global platform for taking proven technologies through First-of-a-Kind (FOAK) deployment and into Nth-of-a-Kind (NOAK) replication. Its combination of industrial demand, infrastructure requirements, manufacturing capability, engineering capacity, diverse operating conditions and large domestic market provides a powerful environment for commercialisation. But the opportunity goes beyond India. Technologies proven, adapted and scaled in India can become significantly more affordable and deployable across Africa, Asia, Latin America and other emerging markets.
