Climate Week effort to 'Flood Wall Street' in New York

Protesters have assembled in New York to call attention to capitalism's contribution to climate change. The World Bank claims countries and businesses worldwide support carbon-pricing schemes to cut greenhouse emissions.

The Flood Wall Street group planned to march to the steps of the New York Stock Exchange for a sit-in Monday, according to Leah Hunt-Hendrix, a spokeswoman for the protesters. The group has roots in the Occupy Wall Street movement, which started in a downtown Manhattan park in 2011. It protested common business practices, saying that they serve the wealthiest 1 percent and leave behind the remaining 99 percent of the world's population.

Flood Wall Street organizers said they hoped that Monday's action would draw a link between economic policies and the environment, accusing banks and businesses of "exploiting frontline communities, workers and natural resources" for financial gain.

Leonardo DiCaprio joined Sunday's New York protest

The event comes as part of Climate Week, which seeks to draw attention to carbon emissions and their link to global warming ahead of a UN summit on September 23. On Sunday, an estimated 311,000 activists marched through Manhattan to warn that climate change would destroy the Earth. Demonstrations also took place around the world to urge policymakers to take quick action.

'Necessary, if insufficient'

On the eve of Tuesday's UN Climate Summit in New York, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said 73 countries and nearly two dozen US states and cities, representing more than half the world's economic output, had endorsed putting a price on carbon emissions. In addition, Kim said, more than 1,000 businesses worldwide, including 300 institutional investors, had endorsed carbon-pricing schemes.

"Today we see real momentum," Kim said. "Governments representing almost half of the world's population and 52 percent of global GDP have thrown their weight behind a price on carbon as a necessary, if insufficient, solution to climate change and a step on the path to low carbon growth." That support "reveals a great commitment and impatience from governments and companies," he said.

The list includes major economic players such as China, France, Germany, Indonesia and Russia, but notably excludes the World Bank's largest single funder: the United States. Kim offered no reason why the US had not signed on as a nation, but pointed out that several states and cities had joined the cause, which President Barack Obama has also declared his support for.

The large US oil companies such as ExxonMobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips have also not endorsed any legislation. Despite experts' warnings, representatives of many major corporations have longexpressed skepticism about climate change, with executives frequently concerned that concerted international action could harm their bottom lines.

mkg/msh (Reuters, AFP, dpa)  dw de