Climate Week 2026 | Columbia Climate School

September 20-27, 2026

Columbia Climate School is bringing bold ideas, leading experts, and groundbreaking research to Climate Week NYC. Explore our events, stories, and updates throughout the week as we help shape the conversation on climate action across New York City.

Featured Events

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2025 Event Highlights

2025 News Highlights

Featured Events

Group of people with signs reading Environmental Justice Now

Tuesday, September 22, 2026, 8:30am-7:30pm, The Bollinger Forum at Columbia University

As communities confront new environmental and climate challenges, Envisioning the Future of the Environmental Justice Movement celebrates the movement's accomplishments while charting the path forward.

Hosted by: WE ACT for Environmental Justice, Columbia Climate School, and Beyond Petrochemicals

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Thursday, September 24, 2026, 2pm-3:30pm, The Bollinger Forum at Columbia University

Drawing on perspectives from science, policy, business, arts, and culture, Beyond the Forecast: What El Niño Reveals About Science, Society, and Action is a conversation with our Distinguished Fellows about how climate knowledge moves from scientific forecasts into real-world decisions.

Hosted by: Columbia Climate School

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All Events

Stay tuned for updates as details and registration become available.

Date: Wednesday, September 16
Title: Columbia Climate School Global Impact Lab: Community Kickoff & Mixer
Host: Global Impact Lab, Columbia Climate School
Description: Columbia Climate School’s Global Impact Lab is opening its doors for a community kickoff. Climate challenges are beyond environmental. They are economic, personal, political, and global issues. Join us to explore climate initiatives grounded in research and connect with mentors and partners.

Date: Monday, September 21
Title: Columbia Fashion, Energy, and Climate Summit
Host: Fashion, Energy, Climate Network, Columbia Climate School and Center on Global Energy Policy, Columbia SIPA
Description: This inaugural summit brings together leaders from across industry, academia, policy, and design to examine how energy systems, materials, markets, finance, regulation, trade, and culture are transforming the industry, and what it will take to build a more resilient, competitive, circular, and climate-conscious fashion system.

Date: Monday, September 21
Title: NYC Climate Week 2026: Sustainable Sports & Entertainment
Host: Sustainability, Energy, and Entertainment Network (SEEN), Columbia Climate School; Green Sports Alliance; Hollywood Climate Summit; and Music Sustainability Alliance
Description: Under the theme Powering Forward, leaders from sports, entertainment, and media explore how organizations can accelerate impact thrugh innovation, cross-sector partnerships, and shared leadership. Discussions focus on: Storytelling, Media & Culture; Sustainable Live Events; Community Resilience Through Venues; and Sustainable Apparel & Merchandising.

Date: Monday, September 21
Title: Game Changing Gear
Host: Columbia University School of Professional Studies
Description: This conversation explores how sports, entertainment, and fashion brands are reimagining the future of gear through sustainability-driven innovation, biodiversity-conscious design, responsible sourcing, and data-informed decision-making. Prior to the panel discussion, participants can attend an information session highlighting Columbia University’s MS in Sustainability Science, MS in Biodiversity Data Analytics, and MS in Sustainability Management programs.

Date: Tuesday, September 22
Title: Envisioning the Future of the Environmental Justice Movement
Host: WE ACT for Environmental Justice, Columbia Climate School, and Beyond Petrochemicals
Description: As communities across the country confront new environmental and climate challenges, this full-day convening celebrates the environmental justice movement's accomplishments while bringing together leaders, advocates, researchers, policymakers, students, and community members to share lessons learned, envision the future of the movement, and chart the path forward.

Date: Tuesday, September 22
Title: Sustainable Energy, Resource, and Environmental Solutions
Host: Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy, Columbia Climate School and Columbia Engineering
Description: This focused convening brings together leaders from industry, research, and government to examine how the United States rebuilds secure, end-to-end mineral supply chains and delivers the dependable, affordable energy that domestic manufacturing and energy-intensive industry require.

Date: Tuesday, September 22
Title: Navigating AI for Sustainable Futures: Managing Risks and Unlocking Opportunities
Host: Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment and Hitachi R&D
Description: Building on our CCSI's AI and Sustainability Transitions report, this event examines how AI governance and sustainability governance face the same institutional problem — and that the communities working on each urgently need to speak to one another.

Date: Tuesday, September 22
Title: The Cool House Community Hub:
Cooling Action Starts with People
Host: REEF
Description: At this full-day celebration of sustainable cooling, CCSI invites you to stop by their table in the Community Hub to share where you see the biggest barriers to decarbonizing the HVAC sector — and what’s enabling progress.

Date: Tuesday, September 22
Title: Leadership at the Intersection of Capital and Sustainability
Host: Super South
Description: What does it actually mean for corporate leaders to take climate seriously — and where do current frameworks fall short? CCSI's Lisa Sachs joins Rivian's Samara Rudolph for a conversation on leadership at the intersection of capital and sustainability.

Date: Tuesday, September 22
Title: Innovation for Climate and Clean Air Progress in the Global South
Host: Columbia Engineering; Clean Air Toolbox for Cities, Columbia Climate School; Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory; and EarthON
Description: The twin challenges of air pollution and climate change must be addressed hand-in-hand alongside economic development in the Global South. This event highlights recent innovation in sensing, data science, industry-academic partnerships, and funding strategies that have helped accelerate progress towards cleaner air and sustainable climate.

Date: Tuesday, September 22
Title: Securing Growth in a Resource-Constrained World
Host: Earth Finance and SpatiaFi
Description: CCSI's Lisa Sachs joins a cross-disciplinary panel on Spatial Finance—the integration of geospatial data, AI, and prescriptive analytics into financial decision-making—exploring what leaders need to know before deploying capital, why traditional risk models can fall short, and how to turn geospatial data into asset-level financial insights.

Date: Wednesday, September 23
Title: Leaders Who Transform Systems: How to Develop Diverse Leaders Capable of Connecting Sectors, Mobilizing People, and Accelerating Systemic Change
Host: Columbia Climate School
Description: This panel discusses how to identify, develop, and connect the leaders who will address the greatest challenges of climate change, and what role philanthropy can play.

Date: Wednesday, September 23
Title: Making Critical Mineral Recovery Bankable & Insurable
Host: Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment, Carbon Trust, Solas Capital, Ellen MacArthur Foundation, Buckstop
Description: This panel identifies the specific term-sheet structures, risk-return profiles, and valuation methods required to transform critical mineral recovery from a financial blind spot into a fully investable and insurable asset class.

Date: Wednesday, September 23
Title: Bridging Knowledge Systems: Nature-Based Solutions Across the Mining Lifecycle
Host: Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment and Vale Base Metals
Description: As the energy transition accelerates demand for critical minerals, there is growing urgency to protect the ecosystems and support the communities affected throughout the mining lifecycle. Building on CCSI’s work on a more sustainable mining value chain, this discussion examines how different knowledge systems can work together to advance the design and implementation of nature-based solutions.

Date: Wednesday, September 23
Title: CEEC Fall Symposium 2026: Mines and Feedstocks to Grids, Chemicals, and Materials
Host: Columbia Engineering
Description: The energy transition depends on the science and engineering that make electrochemistry deployable at scale. This symposium gathers faculty, PhDs, postdocs, and industry practitioners working across this arc to examine electrifying chemicals and materials, the grid frontier, and the technical and commercial problems that matter most.

Date: Wednesday, September 23
Title: Sustainable Energy Catalyst: The Master Minds Roundtables
Host: Columbia Engineering, Columbia Advanced Electrification Center, Event One Solutions
Description: This intimate gathering of senior leaders and innovators driving real change across energy, finance, industry, and policy focuses on engineering the 2050 energy transition.

Date: Thursday, September 24
Title: Columbia Climate and Sustainability Leadership Summit
Host: Columbia University Office of Sustainability and Columbia Climate School
Description: This summit recognizes contributions from the Columbia community to the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS) report.

Date: Thursday, September 24
Title: Beyond the Forecast: What El Niño Reveals About Science, Society, and Action
Host: Columbia Climate School
Description: This panel of our Climate, Earth, and Society Distinguished Fellows examines the near-term impacts of a shifting climate; assesses how prepared our science, policy, business, arts, and cultural institutions are to respond; and identifies where planning and resources still fall short.

Date: Thursday, September 24
Title: How Business is Meeting the Climate Resiliency Challenge: Impactful Risk Reduction and Worthwhile Investments
Host: Columbia University and London Business School Alumni of New York
Description: From front-line practitioners to academic and investor perspectives, this conversation moderated by CCSI's Lisa Sachs examines what good decision-making on climate resilience looks like in practice, surfacing frameworks for making the business case for adaptation, and knowing when to act now versus later.

Date: Thursday, September 24
Title: The Rise of Agentic AI: What It Means for Climate Innovation
Host: LEAP Science & Technology Center and Columbia Engineering
Description: This dynamic panel discussion explores how agentic AI systems are increasingly capable of modeling complex Earth systems, improving climate predictions, and enabling adaptive decision-making, presenting opportunities and challenges for accelerating climate solutions.