Samed Ağırbaş, President of the Zero Waste Foundation, led a week of climate diplomacy in London ahead of COP31 in Türkiye. His engagements at London Climate Action Week closed with a roundtable at Buckingham Palace.
The Zero Waste Foundation is a main stakeholder of London Climate Action Week. From 22 to 25 June, the foundation met finance leaders, city officials and diplomats in London to place zero waste, the circular economy and climate justice at the centre of global efforts, as Türkiye prepares to host COP31.
“London Climate Action Week showed that the climate agenda must now move from promise to delivery,” said Samed Ağırbaş, President of the Zero Waste Foundation and COP31 High-Level Climate Champion. “Climate action must create real progress for people. True global climate justice cannot be achieved while hunger, poverty and inequalities remain unresolved. As COP31 moves towards Türkiye, the zero waste vision gives us a practical and inclusive path to connect ambition with implementation.”
From finance to implementation
The week opened on 22 June at the London Stock Exchange, where Ağırbaş rang the opening bell in the heart of global finance. His message was that the world needs more progress. He underlined the need to unlock climate finance and place the circular economy at the centre of transformation.
On 23 June, Ağırbaş announced the COP31 High-Level Climate Champion Vision Document to the world from London. The document was presented as the main roadmap for the process led by Murat Kurum, Türkiye’s Minister of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change and COP31 President.
Local action and the zero waste vision
At the Bloomberg Philanthropies Local Climate Action Summit, Ağırbaş appeared in a session that also included UN Secretary-General António Guterres. He highlighted the critical role of local governments and shared outcomes from the Zero Waste Forum in Istanbul. The Zero Waste Istanbul Platform for Climate Action was also announced to the world, reinforcing the link between local delivery and global climate diplomacy.
Throughout the week, the engagements underlined that the zero waste vision led globally by H.E. Emine Erdoğan, Founder of the Zero Waste Movement, Chair of the UN High-Level Advisory Board on Zero Waste and Honorary President of the Zero Waste Foundation, has become one of the strongest tools of the global climate agenda.
Buckingham Palace as the culmination of the week
The diplomatic momentum culminated on 25 June with the Climate Action Agenda Roundtable at Buckingham Palace, led by Ağırbaş. The meeting brought together Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change; André Corrêa do Lago, COP30 President; Katie White, UK Climate Minister; Al Gore, former Vice President of the United States; John Kerry, former US Secretary of State; Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland; and actors and climate activists Theo James and Benedict Cumberbatch.
Representatives of international organisations and businesses working in energy, finance and sustainability also joined the roundtable, which focused on implementation, stronger cooperation and the COP31 process. Coming at the end of a week shaped by finance, city and diplomatic engagements, the Buckingham Palace discussion reflected the Zero Waste Foundation’s wider objective. It showed the Foundation’s ambition to make climate action more practical, inclusive and measurable as the world looks towards COP31 in Türkiye.