Hill Heat

A Main Stage session.

It’s boom time for the AI buildout, and cities across the country are scrambling to keep up. Data centers arrive with a voracious appetite for energy and billions in capital investment, bringing relatively minimal permanent jobs and varied effects on water use and community well-being. All of it lands on the grid, land, and water systems for which mayors are accountable. We hear from three mayors navigating the challenges and opportunities of this new era of industrialization.

Speakers:

• Daniel Rickenmann, Mayor, Columbia, South Carolina
• Kate Gallego, Mayor, Phoenix, Arizona
• Justin Bibb, Mayor, Cleveland, Ohio
• Kate Wright, Executive Director, Climate Mayors

09/22/2026 at 01:55PM

Join 7 Directions of Service during Climate Week NYC for an Indigenous-led conversation examining the hidden connections between the rapid growth of data centers and AI, increasing electricity demand, fossil fuel infrastructure, water consumption, land acquisition, and threats to Indigenous and frontline communities.

RSVP

Location TBA.

09/22/2026 at 01:30PM

As communities advance legal and legislative efforts to make Big Oil companies pay for climate damages, the fossil fuel industry is pulling every lever to escape accountability: lobbying Congress and state legislatures for broad legal immunity, attacking climate science and judicial education projects, and urging the U.S. Supreme Court to stop state and local climate deception lawsuits against oil majors before they can reach trial.

On the eve of the U.S. Supreme Court arguments, join a panel of climate accountability leaders to learn about these brazen efforts and how communities are fighting to protect their right to hold Big Oil accountable.

​This event will be moderated by Emily Atkin, Editor-in-chief at HEATED. Speakers include Former Washington Governor Jay Inslee, Former New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin, Tennessee Representative Justin Jones, and Dr. Pallavi Phartiyal of the Union of Concerned Scientists.

​This event is co-hosted by the Center for Climate Integrity and the Union of Concerned Scientists. Co-sponsors include: Climate Defenders, Fossil Free for Health, Fossil Free Media, GreenFaith, Law Students for Climate Accountability, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Third Act, and Third Act New Jersey.

09/22/2026 at 01:00PM

A summit at Climate Week NYC showcasing clean energy leaders doing the work in rural America.

Anchored by Canary Media’s flagship reporting series on rural America, this event puts a spotlight on the communities that too rarely make the headlines.

The day features main stage conversations with Canary journalists, expert panelists, and partners, alongside breakout sessions and workshops diving deeper into the topics shaping clean energy’s next chapter.

Space is limited. Please join the waitlist and we’ll notify you when a spot opens up.

A reception rounds out the day, giving attendees space to connect with the clean energy leaders who are doing the work.

Lineup:

• Tim Pawlenty, President & CEO, SEIA, former Republican Governor, Minnesota
• Jay Inslee, Former Democratic Governor, Washington
• Heather O’Neill, President & CEO, Advanced Energy United
• W. Mondale Robinson, Mayor of Enfield, North Carolina
• Suzanne Singer, Founder and Executive Director, Native Renewables
• Ben Gerber, President & CEO, CleanCounts
• Matt Traldi, CEO & Co-founder, Greenlight America, co-founder, Indivisible
• David Roberts, Founder, Volts.wtf
• Leah Qusba, CEO, GoodPower
• Sarah Hunt, CEO & President, Joseph Rainey Center for Public Policy
• Scott Jennings, Senior Political Contributor, CNN, former George W. Bush administration official
• Michelle Moore, CEO, Groundswell
• Jacob I. Hannah, CEO, Coalfield Development Corp.
• Abre’ Conner, Director of the Center for Environmental and Climate Justice, NAACP
• Scott Laeser, Senior Working Lands Advisor, Rural Climate Partnership
• Robert Blake, Executive Director, Native Sun Community Power Development
• Jordan Macknick, Distinguished Member of Research Staff, National Laboratory of the Rockies
• Julia Tilton, Reporter, Daily Yonder
• Julian Spector, Senior Reporter, Canary Media
• Dr. Daniel Howard, Founder & CEO, Quantum Energy

Sponsors:

• Presenting: Advanced Energy United, CleanCounts, GoodPower, Invest in Our Future, MacArthur Foundation
• Signature: Rural Climate Partnership
• Supporting: McKnight Foundation, Outrider Foundation, SEIA

Civic Hall
124 East 14th Street
New York, NY

09/22/2026 at 12:00PM

A Main Stage session.

Climate disasters, a fractured geopolitical world, and surging power demand are creating the perfect storm for the global economy. How can Washington and international leaders weather the storm?

Speakers:

• Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.)
• David Crane, CEO, Generate Capital
• Anne Kelly, VP, Government Relations, Ceres

North Javits Center, New York City

Register

09/22/2026 at 09:30AM

Yale @ Climate Week NYC 2026 will take place on Tuesday, September 22, from 8:00 AM to 9:00 PM.

Agenda

​8:00 AM - 9:00 AM BREAKFAST & REGISTRATION

​The Yale Club of NYC. Register on the 18th floor; events will also take place at the Rooftop level.

​9:00 AM - 10:30 AM MORNING SESSION I

​Trumbull: From Risk Awareness to Real-World Action: Aligning Climate Adaptation Policy with Public Demand.

This panel will convene leaders from the OECD, Intact Financial Corporation, Yale Program on Climate Change Communication (YPCCC), and partners to introduce the IMPACT Survey (Individuals’ Preferences for Measures and Policies to Adapt to Climate Threats)—a forthcoming 2027 international study on public demand for climate adaptation that will inform national adaptation plans in the run-up to COP32 next year.

Moderator:

• Dr. Anthony Leiserowitz, JoshAni-TomKat Professor, Yale School of the Environment & Director, Yale Program on Climate Change Communication

Panelists

• Ravi Mahabir, Vice President of Climate, Intact Financial Corporation
• Dr. Jennifer Carman, Director of Survey Strategy, Yale Program on Climate Change Communication
• Catherine Gamper, Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience Lead, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
• Jagan Chapagain, Chief Executive Officer and Secretary General, International Federation of Red Cross (IRFC)
• Jaime de Bourbon de Parme, Director, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Environment Directorate

​Rooftop: Resilient Cities, Reimagining Health: Practical Decision-Support Tools to Scale Preventative Action in Cities

​10:50 AM - 12:10 PM MORNING SESSION II

​Trumbull Room: Beyond GDP in Practice: Wealth Accounts for Sustainability, Competitiveness, and Climate [More Info]

Panel:

• Matthew Agarwala, Bennett Chair of Sustainable Finance, Bennett Institute for Innovation & Policy Acceleration, University of Sussex
• Eli Fenichel, Knobloch Family Professor of Natural Resource Economics, Yale School of the Environment
• Valerie Hickey, Director, Environment Department, World Bank Group
• Brian Kernohan, Chief Sustainability Officer, Manulife Investment Management
• Csaba Kőrösi, President of the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly
• Leonard Nakamura, Emeritus Economist, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia
• Jed Sundwall, Executive Director, Radiant Earth

Moderator:

• Angel Hsu, Associate Professor of Public Policy and the Environment at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Director of the Data-Driven EnviroLab

​Rooftop: Cities on the Front Line: Leadership, Design, and Data in the Climate Era

Panel:

• Omoyemi Akerele, 2025 Yale Climate Fellow, Founder and CEO, Lagos Fashion Week and Style House Files
• Kotchakorn Voraakhom, 2026 Yale World Fellow & Founder, LANDPROCESS, the Porous City Network
• Roy Yu-Ta Lin, 2026 Yale World Fellow & Head of Urban Informatics, City Science Lab @ Taipei Tech (MIT–NTUT)

Moderator:

• Yuval Ben-David, Chief Strategy Officer, Yale International Leadership Center

​Lunch will be provided between the morning and afternoon sessions.

​12:30 PM - 1:50 PM AFTERNOON SESSION I

​Saybrook Room: The Ripple Effect: Institutional Decarbonization as Regional Catalyst

​Trumbull Room: Healthy Planet, Healthy Minds and Brains: Science for Resilient Cities and Communities

​Rooftop: Co-Drivers for the Implementation and Scaling of Climate Solutions

​2:10 PM - 3:30 PM AFTERNOON SESSION II

​Saybrook Room: Toxic Intersections of Migration Law and Climate Policy

Panel:

• Ahmed Gaya, Founder and Director of the Climate Justice Collaborative at the National Partnership for New Americans (NPNA)
• Maya Prabhu, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Associate Professor Adjunct of Law at Yale University
• Rania Sharshr, Director of Climate Action at the International Organization for Migration (IOM)
• Maria Cristina Rulli, Professor of Hydrology and Water and Food Security at the Politecnico di Milano
• Brianna Castro, Assistant Professor of Urban Sustainability at Yale School of the Environment
• Sinafekesh Girma Wolde, Climate Migration Program Lead and Postdoctoral Associate at Yale Center for Environmental Justice

​Trumbull Room: International Trade and Climate Change: From Challenges to Alignment Opportunity [More Info]

​Rooftop: Carbon Markets and the Green Transition: A Policy Dialogue [More Info]

​3:50 PM - 5:00 PM AFTERNOON SESSION III

​Saybrook Room: Creatures of Change: Multi-Species Urbanism [More Info]

​Trumbull Room: Superpollutants: Levers for Corporate Action [More Info]

​Rooftop: The Electric Grid: Challenges and Opportunities [More Info]

Panel:

• Joshua Macey, Professor of Law, Yale Law School
• Maria Martinez, Director of Strategy, CleanEcon (MEM ‘19)
• Katie Dykes, Former Commissioner of Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, Yale Law School ‘06
• Harshit Agrawal, Venture Investor, Connecticut Innovations, YSE/YSM ‘26

​Council Room: Strategies that Optimize for Climate Risk Realities: Case Studies in Banking and Insurance [More Info]

Speaker

• Perry Beaumont, PhD, Senior Program Manager at Amazon, Lecturer at Columbia University and Yale

​6:00 PM - 7:30 PM EVENING SESSION I

​Rooftop: Looking Ahead: A Bipartisan Path Forward

The conversation is expected to feature a core group of lawmakers with longstanding records of bipartisan engagement on policy, alongside distinguished public and private sector leaders, offering attendees a candid look at how cross-partisan leadership can help shape the next chapter of American environmental policy.

Moderator

• Laur Hesse Fisher, Climate and Depolarization Strategy

Panelists TBA.

​7:30 PM - 9:00 PM CLOSING RECEPTION

RSVP

The Yale Club
50 Vanderbilt Ave, New York, NY 10017, USA

09/22/2026 at 08:00AM

On Tuesday, September 22nd, WE ACT is hosting Envisioning the Future of the Environmental Justice Movement, a day-long (8:00 AM-7:30 PM) series of discussions on the future of the environmental justice movement. In commemoration of the 35th anniversary of the First National Environmental Justice Leadership Summit, the historic gathering that established the 17 Principles of Environmental Justice and helped shape the modern environmental justice movement, this special event will celebrate the movement’s accomplishments while bringing together leaders, advocates, researchers, policymakers, students, and community members to chart the path forward.

The event will take place at the Lee C. Bollinger Forum at Columbia University, which is located at 601 West 125th Street (the corner of Broadway & West 125th Street). It is co-hosted by WE ACT for Environmental Justice, the Columbia Climate School, and Beyond Petrochemicals. And it is free to all who register, though we gladly welcome donations. As we expect a high turnout, please only register for what you are certain you will attend.

Schedule

Below is the schedule for the day. Registrants are welcome to check off which sessions they are able to attend if they know so already. This is not binding and is helpful for us to determine the head count of each session.

8:30 AM

Registration, coffee, and light breakfast

9:00 AM

Welcome and Opening Remarks

Morning Sessions

9:45–10:45 AM

Fireside Chat: 35 Years Since the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit

Several leaders of the monument will reflect on the historic First National Environmental Justice Leadership Summit – which was held in October 1991 in Washington, DC – and how it helped shape the movement.

11:00 AM–12:00 PM (concurrent sessions)

-The Role of Environmental Justice Academic Centers

-Community-Based Climate Resilience Solutions

A panel discussion on building climate resilience through policy, on-the-ground practice, and infrastructure investment in environmental justice communities.

12:15–1:15 PM

Lunch

Afternoon Sessions 1:30–2:30 PM (Concurrent Sessions)

-The Path Forward: Climate Policy and Regulations Beyond the Rollbacks

Panelists will chart a proactive agenda for climate action across the federal and New York landscapes, looking beyond the current rollbacks toward durable, ambitious policy.

-Voices Shaping the Next Generation of the Environmental Justice Movement (1:30–3:45 PM Extended Session)

This extended panel discussion puts a new generation of movement leaders in the room to discuss where they see the movement over the coming decade

2:45–3:45 PM

-The Cost of Cutting Corners: Permitting, Public Health & the Future of Environmental Justice

A panel discussion on the need to resist compromise and instead scale-up proven local solutions.

4:00–5:00 PM (Concurrent Sessions)

-Safe, Sustainable, and Affordable Housing

Housing sits at the intersection of health, climate, and economic justice – where a home should be affordable to keep, safe to live in, and built to last. This panel will explore how we deliver housing that meets all three demands at once.

-Data Centers: Lessons from Local Campaigns

This panel will convene experts that are confronting data centers from several regions to discuss the parallels and differences in their experiences and ultimately take away lessons on data center organizing from across the country.

5:30–7:30 PM Closing Reception (Atrium)

The Forum at Columbia University, 601 W 125th St, New York, NY 10027, USA

09/22/2026 at 08:00AM

<img src=’/files/502/journalism_climate_solution.jpg’ class=’insert />Good climate journalism can have real-world impact. It can expose wrongdoing, prompt official action, bring attention to people who have been underserved or marginalized, and help audiences understand and critique possible solutions.

​This session, presented with the global journalism collaboration Covering Climate Now, will reframe journalism as a climate solution unto itself. Through clips, images, audio, and conversation, the journalists behind the work will discuss the stories they reported, the audiences they reached, and what the impact has been.

​During the second part of the session, we’ll discuss journalism as a powerful solution to climate change. How can strong reporting build public understanding and hold powerful institutions accountable? What hurdles stand in the way — including political hurdles but also funding hurdles for journalism? And how can journalists equip audiences with the information they need to effectively respond to the climate crisis?

​Speakers

• ​Geoff Dembicki, Global Managing Editor of DeSmog
• ​Jazzmin Jiwa, Investigative Journalist and Documentary Filmmaker
• Nina Dietz, Journalist & Documentarian
• ​Jason Spingarn-Koff, filmmaker, journalist, and Professor and Knight Chair of Climate Journalism at UC Berkeley
• David Akana, Director of Programs at Mongabay Africa

​Moderator

• Mark Hertsgaard, Executive Director at Covering Climate Now

SVA Theatre
333 W 23rd St, New York, NY 10011, USA

09/21/2026 at 03:30PM

At this roundtable, activist and content creators talk about LNG campaigns to:

​Identify narratives to test what is not working with the public, hot takes and create content.

​Brief overview by Oil Change International on energy economics and policy around LNG, data centers, and the US role as a fossil fuel enabler globally.

​Find common targets (proponents, governments, industry actors) to scheme campaign actions.

​Share learnings and good practices in the current political moment.

​This is our opportunity to stop near-term emissions before LNG infrastructure is built, and to show that transnational solidarity across North America can move faster than industry money and geopolitical pressure.

​Why is this happening? ​The fight against fossil fuels is moving offshore, and it is moving across borders. LNG is the fastest growing segment of the fossil fuel industry, on track for the largest LNG export-capacity buildout in history. It is sold as a “bridge to clean energy,” despite methane emissions and new infrastructure that can deepen dependence on gas for decades. Offshore extraction already supplies nearly one third of global oil and gas output, while 85 percent of new oil and gas discoveries in 2024 were located in just ten offshore fields.

​This is not only a US fight, but the United States is central to the global LNG boom. Canada, Mexico, and the US are expanding LNG export capacity along connected coastlines, waters, and gas systems, while Asia and Europe are becoming more LNG dependent. The same financial institutions repeatedly enable this expansion with 6 banks supplying 80 percent of US bank financing for LNG expansion between 2021 and 2023, totalling $51.2 billion.

​Building on the work of the Say No to LNG coalition in Canada, the Global LNG Working Group, Gulf South organizers in the US, Whales or Gas in Mexico, and the many local movements leading resistance, we will convene at NYCW to exchange ideas, align strategy and actions, and develop content that breaks beyond our echo chambers.

​Who is hosting this session? ​Jose Reyeros is a climate justice activist, working to advance solutions and amplify civil society efforts within policy networks. His advocacy efforts with the Chilli App focus on stopping fossil fuel expansion in the ocean and amplifying the science and storytelling needed to represent coastal communities and biodiversity in public narratives and policy. He brings years of campaigning experience to protect the Gulf of California from Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) infrastructure and build coalitions with grassroots and conservation networks across North America.

​”This year, I have joined lines with the Confronting CeraWeek network, supported protests in Mexico with the WhalesOrGas coalition and worked in communications + strategy with Say No to LNG in Canada. After the Santa Marta Transition Away from Fossil Fuels Conference, I bring ambition to connect activists, science and policy for ambitious progress for Just Transitions in the ocean and #MakeRichPollutersPay

​More about Keanu Arpels-Josiah

​Keanu Arpels-Josiah (he/him), is a youth climate justice organizer and activist born and raised on Munsee Lenape land in what is called New York City, and is currently working to build connections across various youth movements and fights from the local to the global. He’s been a core organizer and the policy co-lead with Fridays For Future NYC, where he’s advocated for action on climate justice and legislation on the local, state, federal, and international governmental levels since high school. In 2023, he was one of the lead organizers of the March To End Fossil Fuels, organizing with a multigenerational intersectional coalition to plan and mobilize for a 75,000-person march in N.Y.C., calling on President Biden to stop expanding and phase out fossil fuels. Currently, he also helps coordinate Fridays For Future USA in some campaign areas and works as an advisor to Sunrise Movement NYC’s electoral team.

​About Chilli

​Chilli is a digital action for climate and social justice. Every action on the platform takes under two minutes. We act as a hub for petitions, open letters, pressure campaigns designed for people who care but don’t have time to waste. chilli exists to close the gap between your audience knowing something is wrong and actually doing something about it.”

Location The Bench
49 Elizabeth St, New York, NY 10013, USA

09/21/2026 at 01:30PM

Climate change and nature loss are reshaping insurance markets and widening the protection gap. More frequent and severe floods, storms, wildfires, and droughts are driving losses higher, while degraded ecosystems are reducing the natural protections communities rely on, from flood absorption to heat mitigation. Together, these trends are pushing climate-related insured losses up by an unsustainable 5% to 7% annually in real terms. This session will focus on practical solutions to close the growing insurance gap by aligning policy, regulation, finance, insurance practice, and investment in nature.

Hosted by David Kuhn, Corporate Resilience Lead, WWF-US and Josh Goldman Senior Director, Climate Communications, WWF-US

With Rep. Kathy Castor (Fla.-14)

At the Fordham Law School at Lincoln Center.

RSVP

09/21/2026 at 01:00PM