A resilient week – Climate Week NYC

New York is a city like no other and its Climate Week is special. It is one that, despite the loud bustle of the city in September, manages to be quietly effective. As I walk through Manhattan, surrounded by tourists, theatregoers and the usual city chaos, it’s striking to think that all around us, the future of global business, resilience and climate strategy is being shaped in rooms filled with CEOs, policymakers and strategists. And most people don’t even know. 

Unless you were looking for it, you would be forgiven for thinking that Climate Week NYC (CWNYC) wasn’t happening, especially amidst the fanfare of the UN General Assembly, the Clinton Global Initiative, The Concordia Summit, the Gates Foundation’s Gatekeepers Summit and the Bloomberg Philanthropies Global Forum, which are all coinciding this week. You often have to stop and wait for a cavalcade to go past, or see Secret Service scurrying around protecting dignitaries, but no one bats an eyelid as CWNYC delegates buzz around. And that’s the point – it’s happening quietly but connected to absolutely everything that’s taking place. And corporates and policy makers ignoring this week will do so at their own cost. 

This year, the conference has felt more pragmatic, more corporate and more strategic than ever. And this is, in part, due to the context that the week finds itself in with the most famous New Yorker of all time, President Donald Trump, effectively declaring war on climate in his UN General Assembly address on day two of the week. 

So, perhaps there are fewer press releases, flash and pomp this year, but real action is still happening in the side rooms, roundtables and meetings. There’s a rethink underway. The conversations I’ve been part of aren’t about saving the world. Whist CWNYC may have started off as that, it now feels like climate is merely a byproduct. What’s really being discussed now is how to build better businesses, more resilient economies and future-proofed jobs. The language code has shifted to resilience rather than climate change, energy security rather than renewables, future proofing rather than decarbonisation. 

That is because, whether everyone agrees or not, things are happening. Climate issues are reshaping markets, cost-of-living pressures are being exacerbated by disrupted supply chains and insurance premiums are rising due to extreme weather events. So engaged corporates and policy makers are responding; not out of a moral obligation, but because their stakeholders, customers and shareholders demand it. It makes good business sense to act on these problems.

Having been here all week, it certainly feels like climate action is alive and kicking and has a mind of its own, despite what some global leaders might be saying. It now has its own heartbeat and is strong enough to continue outside the body of the UN. Many people have referenced that in Climate Weeks past, the conversations have been around pledges and targets, but now we are into the plans and progress stage. No one is impressed any more about your ambitions, but instead people want to be hearing about “where are you now, what have you been doing and where are you going”. 

It’s a week where you jump from a panel hosted by giants like L’Oréal and P&G to intimate roundtables led by the Green Finance Institute or the Taskforce on Net Zero Policy. Supporting clients here, we have been to many media briefings and sat in on bilateral and group meetings where corporates are quietly identifying and working together on better ways of doing things. During the day you book yourself endless decaf coffees, and in the evenings, there are rooftop soirées and receptions with too many invites to know where to go to. The city is alive with movement, and the world is watching, even if it doesn’t always know it. Journalists are dotted among most events, and thousands more are following the proceedings online.

That said, the global media spotlight this week has been on New York for different reasons – namely, the UN General Assembly. Broken teleprompters and escalators and high-level diplomacy have dominated the headlines. But CWNYC shares its calendar with the General Assembly by design. Initially, it was meant to give climate advocates a chance to influence global policy, but it has outgrown this scheduling alignment and now has a pace of its own. Diplomats are here to debate, but CWNYC is hosting the world’s corporates, who are treating climate as a resilience issue that’s central to business strategy. 

The UN has made its own headlines, with nearly 100 countries announcing or updating their climate targets, covering two-thirds of global emissions. Separate to that, CWNYC too has broken records. Over 1,000 events have taken place across the city, drawing more than 100,000 attendees, making it the most attended Climate Week in the world. This scale matters for both visibility and impact. It’s a signal that climate is no longer a fringe issue, but a mainstream business concern. And it’s happening in a city that is uniquely positioned to lead.

New York has a particular opportunity which it appears to be trying to grasp. With the political turbulence in Washington D.C. and the new administration, the city is stepping into a leadership vacuum on responsible business. All made possible due to the federal system, where states are able to dictate their own path (a bit like how sovereign countries are able to), CWNYC is a clear indication of the direction New York is heading. It’s not waiting for national or international consensus, but it is seeking to establish itself as the Big Climate Apple, building coalitions, shaping markets and setting the tone for what climate leadership looks like in practice. And being the home of Wall Steet gives the city a huge opportunity.

One theme that has come up time and time again this week is on measurement and data. It has been described as the “less sexy” side of sustainability, but it’s seen as essential for corporates and policy makers going forward. Just as people track steps or calories to improve their health, businesses are now tracking emissions, risk exposure, and resilience metrics - there is an understanding that only when measurement is done properly can action follow. As one delegate put it, “without data, you’re just another person with an opinion”. 

Despite the headwinds, political uncertainty, economic volatility and climate fatigue, there’s optimism here. Someone described it as, “optimism aligned with practical solutions is critical to leadership. No one wants to get on a plane with a depressed pilot.” That sentiment has stuck with me, and it doesn’t feel like blind hope: the panels demonstrate action, collaboration and a shared understanding that the path forward is already laid. The consensus here is that deviating from the path is risky and, importantly, will end up being bad business.

New York is busy right now. But Climate Week NYC feels to be cutting through the noise, not with fanfare, but with focus. Let’s see if COP30 can keep up.