On June 22, some of today’s most celebrated musicians will play a free concert at Paris’ iconic Champ de Mars at the foot of the Eiffel Tower. The ticketed event — Power Our Planet: Live In Paris, headlined by Lenny Kravitz, Billie Eilish, H.E.R. and Jon Batiste (who boast a collective 21 Grammys between them) with special guests Ben Harper, FINNEAS and Mosimann – is part of Global Citizen’s campaign for world leaders to make serious, meaningful commitments at the Summit for a New Global Financial Pact, hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on June 22-23.
While Global Citizen has been holding global concerts for over a decade now, CEO and co-founder Hugh Evans says the stakes are as high as they’ve ever been for our planet. “The last few years have been a disaster for progress on climate change,” Evans bluntly states. “This is the critical year.”
With real-life examples of climate catastrophe becoming regular news headlines and the overwhelming scientific consensus warning us that it will only get worse in our lifetimes without immediate action, Global Citizen is laser-focused on bridging the financial gap between the richest countries and the poorest, most climate-vulnerable nations. And while President Biden brought the U.S. back into the Paris Agreement in 2021 and U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen has described climate change as an “existential threat,” Evans says far from enough is being done tackle the global threat.
“Everyone likes the talk about climate change but that’s part of what makes it such a problem – only a certain amount of real tangible actions will lead to real outcomes,” Evans says. “I’m honestly shocked more climate advocates aren’t racing to address this issue.”
“The next generation are inheriting a planet that’s being devastated by climate change,” says Kravitz. “We have the power to change things with our voices and our actions. Join me on June 22, from wherever you are, and act today to save tomorrow.”
Although Congress remains in gridlock over debt ceiling talks, Evans says the Biden administration – Yellen in particular – has the ability to make an immediate change just by picking up a phone.
“If [Yellen] signaled to the World Bank that the U.S. will continue to fund the World Bank, that increases the ability of the World Bank to loan more. Do they believe the U.S. is committed long term to the World Bank’s success? If they do, they can lend more and that money can be immediately deployed to tackle climate change.”
Pointing to emerging markets such as Barbados and Myanmar, Evans says they “can’t afford to transition straight to clean energy” without loans. “We’re pragmatic activists looking at data, at all the facts, and asking what can make the biggest impact for the world’s poor right now?” The answer, he says, is bridging the $26 billion finance gap. And that number isn’t quite as imposing as it may sound. Not only are some countries sitting on a combined $16.7 billion in promised climate financing to lower-income countries which hasn’t yet been deployed, but Evans says the World Bank’s “appalling” equity-to-loan radio in 2022 meant “they were sitting on $25 billion in uninvested capital.”
A call from Yellen to incoming World Bank President Ajay Banga (who takes over in June) would begin to bridge that gap. “The U.S. administration has the ability to pull these levers relatively easily by signaling to ratings agencies that they will continue to invest in the World Bank, like they have since the Second World War,” Evans says. “That signal has a huge impact on confidence and the ability of the World Bank to lend more. The U.S. Treasury has to play a bigger role and the White House has to take a greater role.”
The path toward that greater role begins June 22 in Paris, which hosts the Summit for a New Global Financial Pact as well as the Power Our Planet: Live In Paris concert. Lucky attendees of the concert event, which is produced by Live Nation, will have earned tickets by taking actions through the Global Citizen app. “The tickets drive hundreds of thousands of actions,” Evans says, while the concert itself and its A-list participants help put pressure on global leaders and corporations to commit to tackling the climate crisis.
Maggie Baird, whose Grammy-nabbing children Billie Eilish and FINNEAS are both performing at the June 22 Paris event, recently told Billboard about her climate activism and the music industry’s ability to make a difference. “One of the things I did with Billie from the beginning was push the music industry to be more sustainably minded. I think the music industry is special in a lot of ways,” she said. “They have direct artist to fan connection — other forms of entertainment, not so much. A musician has a real heart-to-heart connection with their fans.”
For those who aren’t attending, Power Our Planet, Live In Paris will be livestreamed on Global Citizen’s social media platforms on June 22 as well as on Amazon Music’s Twitch channel.
