The annual Climate Week NYC gathering took place Sept. 21-28, drawing attendees from the private sector, governments, nonprofits and the climate community at large. 

The nonprofit Climate Group organizes Climate Week NYC in partnership with the UN General Assembly and the City of New York, and 2025's events focused on 10 broad topics under the banner theme “Power On”: energy, environmental justice, finance, food, health, heavy industry, nature, policy, sustainable living, and transport.

Started in 2009, this event convenes business leaders in New York City each year while government leaders and nongovernmental organizations are in the city for UN General Assembly meetings. This means many decision-makers from the public and private sectors are in town at a key moment, less than two months before COP, the UN’s annual Climate Change Conference of the Parties. In 2025, COP30 will take place in Belém, Brazil, on Nov. 10–21.

More Climate Week events are popping up all around the world. Washington, DC hosted its first-ever climate week in 2025. London Climate Action Week more than doubled in size in 2025 compared to the previous year, according to Reuters. And so far in 2025, other climate weeks around the world have been hosted in locations including Brazil, Ethiopia, Panama, Australia and Thailand. Below, we outline five key takeaways from Climate Week NYC that we expect to inform corporate decision-making over the rest of the year and beyond.

1. Climate momentum and decarbonization efforts continue

Despite early uncertainty about the level of participation in Climate Week NYC, this year's event brought more than 1,000 announced events and a reported 100,000 attendees, surpassing prior years. Delegates from across the world, and particularly the private sector, arrived to discuss solutions, cooperation, projects and investment.

Various companies reaffirmed that their planning horizons for key projects and investment go beyond individual political and election cycles. These discussions look very different in different parts of the world, and some attendees pointed to COP30 as a test of whether multilateralism can help advance global climate solutions, or whether the world will take an increasingly fragmented, regional approach. Ahead of Climate Week NYC, S&P Global Energy released reimagined energy scenarios that seek to capture the sometimes contradictory trends in fossil fuel demand and renewable energy growth, as well as the fragmentation and complexities of international geopolitical relationships and trade.

In many events, we heard the narrative pivot toward competitiveness and clarity of purpose in sustainability efforts, and toward improving bankability, insurability, and driving healthy and productive economies. The term “energy addition” has become a more regular part of the climate conversation, as have the idea of “pragmatism” and a heightened sensitivity to issues of affordability and the political consequences of high energy costs. This focus on pragmatism has increasingly characterized discussions in the energy and sustainability worlds in 2025.

2. Adaptation and resilience take center stage

A focus on adaptation and resilience was ubiquitous at Climate Week NYC in 2025. While decarbonization and mitigation efforts remain central to sustainability strategies, there was rising acknowledgment among many participants that the world is going to overshoot the Paris Agreement on climate change’s goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees C. This is leading to more pragmatic discussions that recognize the world’s response to climate change also needs to include investment in adaptation and resilience efforts to prepare for the reality of the warming world.

Countries agreed at COP26 in 2021 to double finance for adaptation by 2025 from 2019 levels, which many believe will not be met. But investments in adaptation and resilience — such as products or solutions focused on improving water efficiency, or that boost agricultural productivity in the face of drought — are increasingly being viewed as an opportunity, with some research suggesting a significant return on investment and more than $2 trillion of unpriced adaptation and resilience-related revenue growth. We spoke to asset owners and managers who view adaptation as an investible thesis and are seeking land assets that have more resilience characteristics. We also heard that more data and analytics can help financial market participants better understand the risks and opportunities that climate hazards pose, as well as help target necessary adaptation and resilience solutions.  

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3. All eyes are on insurance

There was a heightened focus on the role of insurers at Climate Week NYC. As climate change causes more frequent and severe extreme weather events, some insurers are increasing premiums or pulling out of certain regions, with implications for policy and the financial markets.

The urgency is growing to adopt new strategies and practices to assess climate-related risks, particularly in the US homeowners insurance market. An S&P Global Market Intelligence analysis of rate and rule product filings in key US states revealed that insurers are actively revising homeowners policy forms and rules to address climate-induced risks. While actions of this sort have traditionally been focused on states such as Florida and California — given their heightened exposure to hurricanes and wildfires, respectively — the analysis showed that insurers are taking a more cautious approach to other markets, particularly those prone to hailstorms, pursuing actions that could have broader impact on the affordability and availability of coverage. 

Changes in coverage terms and conditions carry meaningful implications for housing finance and the broader economy. Full homeowners insurance coverage is a necessity for most mortgage loans to remain in good standing. After an event occurs, higher wind and hail deductibles and more limited coverage for damaged roofs place more of the financial burden on property owners, raising mortgage delinquency and default risk.

With carriers continually refining their appetites to write business in catastrophe-prone markets, society faces difficult choices that ultimately will culminate in the greater sharing of risk. But much uncertainty remains about how that risk will be divvied up.

Further reading & listening:

4. AI and energy are redefining geopolitics

Picking up vacated space in global climate leadership, China announced its new Paris Agreement Nationally Determined Contribution targets for 2035, marking the first time the country has committed to absolute reductions from a peak level. China’s dominance of clean technology supply — ranging from rare earth processing to lithium-ion battery cells to hydrogen electrolyzers — was widely acknowledged in Climate Week NYC discussions, and there is limited belief that there will be credible challengers in many key segments of this space.

AI was a topic that cut across many discussions at Climate Week NYC as participants touted the technology’s potential to increase energy optimization.

We also heard acknowledgment that AI brings certain sustainability pressures, including increased emissions and water usage. Clean, firm power is still a top priority for data center companies. Nuclear is being increasingly recognized as part of the “all of the above” energy of the future that will help meet rising energy demand to power growing numbers of data centers being developed for geopolitically strategic AI capabilities. But high levels of growth could put some data center companies’ sustainability goals under pressure, given competition for clean power. 

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5. Water, water everywhere as nature and food systems get more attention

Water was a common theme across many Climate Week NYC discussions and through different lenses. Companies and governments are weighing the physical climate risks related to water, such as water stress, drought and flooding. Security of water supply for agricultural goods is rapidly becoming a top strategic issue for executives in the food value chain. 

Many discussions centered around food, specifically the role that food security plays in driving biodiversity loss, and the challenge that climate change poses to agricultural productivity in many regions. Rising input costs and more frequent and extreme weather events, as well as the slow pace of technology adoption in emerging markets, are challenging farmers. This concern is focusing corporate attention on how accessing granular ecosystem-level insights, establishing longer-term purchase agreements, targeting technological interventions, and increasing demand for crops that are resilient in different growing conditions, can help the whole food system to adapt.    

Ocean health was another focus during the week, as the UN ratified a historic treaty to safeguard marine biodiversity on the high seas. And as companies seek to understand their nature risks and dependencies, we heard a rising recognition of the role that water plays in ecosystem services that many businesses rely on. 

Nature will be in focus in November as COP30 takes place in the Brazilian Amazon. The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) released its 2025 status report during Climate Week, showing that 620 organizations from around the world representing US$20 trillion in assets under management have publicly committed to aligning nature-related reporting to TNFD recommendations. Nearly two-thirds of companies the TNFD surveyed for the report believe that their nature-related issues are as significant, or more significant, as climate-related issues to the future prospects of their business.

Further reading & listening:

Learn more about the Corporate Sustainability Assessment and S&P Global ESG Raw Data

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