Hill Heat

This Climate Week NYC, join Grist for a rare peek behind the stories of what it takes to create and sustain climate action against increasing headwinds.

For 10 years, Grist has been identifying and chronicling the people turning ambitious climate ideas into real-world impact. In an evening of powerful live storytelling, these changemakers will share their personal journeys and the moments, setbacks, risks, and breakthroughs that shaped their work.

Hear from the makers, doers, builders, movers, and dreamers who have gone on to reshape industries, influence policy, and change communities as they reflect on the real progress they have made and build a vision for what it will take to meet the moment ahead.

This event will feature a live Science Friday podcast recording with Flora Lichtman (G50 ‘16) and Ayana Elizabeth Johnson (G50 ‘18), and live storytelling from Steph Speirs (G50 ‘17) and Jerome Foster II (G50 ‘20), and Jessie Bluedorn (G50 ‘25).

​The event is supported by NRDC, The Wilderness Society, Alnoba Lewis Family Foundation, and University of Washington’s College of the Environment.

Can’t join us in person at Climate Week NYC? Sign up here to receive the event video.

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09/23/2026 at 05:30PM

No more unregulated AI! AI is eliminating jobs, spreading disinformation, and accelerating irreversible climate change. The massive data centers that power AI consume vast amounts of energy, mostly generated by fossil fuels that cause the climate crisis. AI is not inevitable. We don’t have to wait passively while the tech oligarchs race to consolidate political and economic power in their own hands. We can pause this technology while we evaluate how to use it for good, not evil. Join us for a family-friendly action outside Google’s Chelsea offices to support a moratorium on data center construction and on AI use in schools.

More information

4:30pm
Google Offices (111 8th Ave, Manhattan)

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09/23/2026 at 04:30PM

This panel will focus on how to advance a strategic climate agenda that meets the political moment and works for working people.

Democratic congressional candidates, union leadership, and Climate and Community Institute experts from will tackle the burning questions that the climate movement faces in the coming months and beyond. How do we ensure that climate continues to be a political priority? When and how should we take big policy swings? How do we deliver concrete results and build a mass constituency for a Working Class Climate Agenda? How can movement advocates effectively work with policymakers to drive this agenda forward?

Speakers will discuss timely policy ideas that will simultaneously provide immediate relief and build the mass movement towards the climate and economy we deserve.

Speakers:

• Will Lawrence, MI-07 Candidate
• Claire Valdez, NY-07 Candidate
• Priyanka Mohanty UAW CGME
• Aru Shiney-Ajay, Sunrise Movement
• Johanna Bozuwa, CCI
• Rakeen Mabud, CCI

Event Space
91 E 3rd Street
New York, NY 10003

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09/23/2026 at 04:00PM

​Load growth is arriving faster than capacity. Illinois repealed its nuclear moratorium, set a 2 GW target by executive order and is now working out how to put real projects in the ground without handing the bill to ratepayers. That is the question facing every state with load growth and every founder building the thing that meets it.

​Join Overture and leading founders and investors for an afternoon of fireside chats on firm capacity, affordability and the politics of building fast.

​An event of New York Climate Week 2026, presented with Boundary Stone Partners and Stifel..

​Program ​2:00 pm · Arrival and reception

​2:30 pm · Licensed to Build

• Jake Jurewicz, Co-Founder and CEO, Blue Energy
• Jeff Navin, Co-Founder, Boundary Stone Partners

​3:00 pm · Kitchen Table Economics

• Governor JB Pritzker, Governor of Illinois
• Ben Rhodes, Former Deputy National Security Advisor

​3:30 pm · Networking reception

09/23/2026 at 02:00PM

Please join us in welcoming Permian Gulf Coast Coalition members traveling to New York Climate Week this year!

Developed in 2019, the Permian Gulf Coast Coalition (PGCC) is made up of frontline environmental justice groups from New Mexico, Texas, and Louisiana organizing together to protect their communities from the petrochemical infrastructure buildout sourced from the Permian Basin in Southeast NM and West TX, and is making it’s debut at NY Climate Week 2026! Join us for our panel event An Afternoon with the PGCC: Stories from the Permian Gulf, with a lineup of coalition members that includes:

• Armon Alex, Gulf of Mexico Youth Climate Summit & Coalition Steering Committee member
• Eli Hilbert, Texas Permian Future Generations
• Feleecia Guillen, New Mexico No False Solutions Coalition
• Kaitlyn Joshua, Earthworks
• Melanie Oldham, Better Brazoria: Clean Air and Water
• Dr. Roishetta Ozane, The Vessel Project of Louisiana

Facilitated by Ricky Gonzalez, Planet over Profit NYC

Come hear what site fights PGCC members are organizing around, how the coalition came to be and what initiatives its has planned for the next year!

YA-YA Network NYC
135 W 36th St. PH
New York, NY 10018

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09/23/2026 at 12:30PM

An online webinar with Emily Sanders.

The first case the US Supreme Court will hear this fall term is a blockbuster climate lawsuit — one of dozens brought by state and local governments that argue oil companies deceived the public about the dangers of burning fossil fuels and should be held accountable for climate damages.

On October 5, ExxonMobil and Suncor will argue alongside the Trump administration that the lawsuit brought by Boulder, Colo., and others like it, are preempted by federal law, and, as a result, should be dismissed before trial. Journalists can help the public understand what these cases are about, the arguments coming before the court, and the stakes of this showdown for communities facing increasingly damaging and expensive extreme weather events across the country.

Join Covering Climate Now and Point Source for this special conversation digging into questions the court will try to resolve and the various angles reporters can explore in their coverage of this case — the role of oil industry money, the broader attacks on climate accountability, the potential implications for climate litigation nationally and internationally, and climate impacts in Colorado. Emily Sanders of Point Source, a new reporting project covering climate accountability (formerly ExxonKnews), will moderate. Come with questions!

Panelists:

• Alejandro Camacho, Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law
• Lesley Clark, Reporter, Politico
• Ishan Thakore, Climate and Environment Reporter, Colorado Public Radio

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09/23/2026 at 12:00PM

An event of Heatmap News’s Heatmap House.

According to Heatmap News, the Inflation Reduction Act changed everything for U.S. climate policy. What comes next might, too. From the politics shaping America’s energy future to the investments and technologies that will define it, leading voices across politics, government, business, and climate tech will take stock of what the IRA built — and what comes next.

​10:45am: Doors Open

​11:00-11:20am: 20 Years After An Inconvenient Truth

​* Former Vice President Al Gore, Founder and Chairman, Climate Reality Project

​Moderated by Robinson Meyer, Founding Executive Editor, Heatmap News

​11:20-11:35am: The Politics of What Comes Next

• ​Chris Hayes, Host, All In with Chris Hayes, MS NOW

​11:35-11:45am: A Bipartisan Energy Future

• ​James Dozier, Founding President & Board Chair

​Moderated by Nico Lauricella, CEO and Editor-in-Chief, Heatmap News

​11:45-12:00pm: What the IRA Built

• ​Brian Deese, Co-founder and CEO, Foundry-Logic, and former Director of the White House National Economic Council

​12:00-12:15pm: What Climate Tech Needs Now

• ​Dawn Lippert, Founder and CEO, Elemental Impact and General Partner, Earthshot Ventures

​Moderated by Katie Brigham, Staff Writer, Heatmap News

​12:15-12:30pm: America’s Energy Path

• ​Chris Wright, Secretary of Energy, U.S. Department of Energy

​Moderated by Robinson Meyer, Founding Executive Editor, Heatmap News

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22 Vanderbilt
335 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10017, USA

09/23/2026 at 10:45AM

Has climate storytelling entered a new phase amidst the virtual disappearance of “net zero” goals and a more uncertain period for electrification, decarbonization and the energy transition? Journalists from the Financial Times, the Washington Post and Canary Media will join us for the 4th installment of Antenna Group’s media panel at New York Climate Week to discuss this. The panel will cover additional insights from the newsrooms they work in, including their take on the news cycles around AI data centers, putting the economic value of climate tech more front and center, and other topics with major implications for climate and energy storytelling.

Moderator:

• Isaac Steinmetz | VP Media | Antenna Group

​Panelists:

• ​Martha Muir | US Energy Reporter | Financial Times
• ​Evan Halper | Business Reporter | Washington Post
• ​Maria Gallucci | Senior Reporter | Canary Media

LUME Studios
393 Broadway, New York, NY 10013, USA

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09/23/2026 at 10:40AM

On Wednesday, September 23, at 10:00 a.m., U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, will hold a hearing to examine opportunities to update America’s nuclear waste management policies.

Witnesses:

• Lake Barrett, Chair, American Nuclear Society Nuclear Waste Policy Task Force
• Katrina McMurrian, Executive Director, Nuclear Waste Strategy Coalition (NWSC)
• Kathryn Huff, Ph.D., Professor and Department Chair, Department of Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison

09/23/2026 at 10:00AM

On Wednesday, September 23 at Convene 75 Rockefeller Plaza, Ceres at Climate Week NYC hosts a full day of flagship programming focused on the issues shaping the next phase of the clean energy transition. Together on Ceres’ mainstage, policymakers, investors, companies, and key stakeholders will convene for critical conversations on building a cleaner, more just economy. Take part in shaping what comes next.

Due to overwhelming interest, we’re excited to offer a livestream broadcast of the Mainstage program. Whether you’re a sustainability ally around the nation and globe, or in NYC and unable to attend the in-person event, we invite you to tune in live or on-demand.

9 am - 10 am Financing Our Future: Unlocking Capital for Deployment and Innovation

Investments in the clean energy economy stand at $2.3 Trillion annually and are growing rapidly. Real economy allocations amplify this generational opportunity for innovation and scaling the technologies of the future. This program will examine the structural barriers limiting capital flows into clean energy deployment and innovation, and explore how investors and businesses can accelerate investment in climate solutions that improve resiliency, efficiency, and long-term competitiveness.

Participants:

• Peter Cashion, Managing Investment Director for Sustainable Investments, CalPERS *Dan Firger Founder and Managing Partner, Great Circle Capital Advisors,
• Neal Kemkar, Chief Network Officer, Ceres
• Mark Levine, Comptroller, City of New York
• Mindy Lubber, CEO and President, Ceres
• Cynthia McHale, Vice President, Investor Network, Ceres
• Benjamin Pickett, Executive Vice President, Nucor
• Marcus von Kapff, Advanced Manufacturing Lead, Security and Resiliency Initiative, JPMorganChase

10:10 - 10:50am State Leadership: Opportunities in an Era of Transformation

States have always served as the proving grounds of innovation and where competing visions of the future are explored. Governors from red and blue states will share perspectives about balancing economic development, affordability and energy, community resiliency, and investment priorities while leading through a period of rapid change. They will also discuss advancing long-term competitiveness in a polarized political environment.

Participating elected leaders to be announced soon.

Participants:

• Andrew Collier, Director, Freedom to Invest, Ceres
• Dr. Noel Hacegaba, CEO, Port of Long Beach
• Anne L. Kelly, Vice President, Government Relations, Ceres

11:00am - 12:00pm Powering the Digital Economy: Sustainable Data Centers

AI Implementation is accelerating, and data centers are driving energy and water demand. The opportunity is massive to build sustainably and incorporate clean energy and water innovations, ensuring sustainable operations, affordability, and community benefits. The program will explore risks and opportunities and highlight practical approaches for scaling digital infrastructure responsibly and efficiently.

Participants:

• Steven Clarke, Program Director, Climate and Energy, Ceres
• Abre’ Conner, Director of the Center for Environmental and Climate Justice, NAACP
• Anna Foglesong, Executive Director, Connected Grid Initiative (CGI)
• Erika Gupta, SVP & Head of Sustainability, Siemens Financial Services
• Doreen Harris, President and CEO, NYSERDA
• Aaron Johnson, Senior VP and Chief Sustainability Officer, Pacific Gas and Electric Company
• Steven Rothstein, Chief Program Officer, Ceres
• Craig Sundstrom, Head of Energy and Sustainability Public Policy, Americas, Amazon Web Service (AWS)

09/23/2026 at 09:00AM