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The 2025 Climate Week NYC is taking place September 21 – 28 in New York City. The annual event is hosted by the non-profit Climate Group and held in conjunction with the meeting of the United Nations General Assembly. It will gather international leaders from politics, business, and science to advocate for climate change reforms. The sessions will indicate the future of climate change policy and provide insight for business leaders as to future regulations, especially as it relates to AI.
The overall theme of the 2025 meeting is “Power On.” The programming is divided into ten categories: Built Environment, Energy, Environmental Justice, Finance, Food, Health, Industry, Nature, Policy, and Sustainable Living. Each session is hosted by organizations and businesses throughout the city.
With over 900 sessions running simultaneously in person and virtually, finding the right schedule can be difficult. Here are seven programs focused on the influence of AI on climate change and the associated impact on power consumption.
Speakers: Angela Barranco, Executive Director – North America, Climate Group; Christopher Wellise, VP, Sustainability, Equinix; Holly Paeper, President, Commercial HVAC, Trane Technologies
Theme: As AI, data infrastructure, and digital services scale at unprecedented rates across the US, their impact on the country’s energy systems is fast becoming one of the defining challenges and opportunities of the decade. While surging demand from AI and advanced manufacturing is placing new pressure on America’s grid, the technologies driving this transformation could also be the key to unlocking smarter, cleaner, and more efficient energy systems.
Theme: Join Noon Energy and friends during NY Climate Week at The Cornell Club for a timely conversation on the critical role of multi-day energy storage in enabling clean, firm power for a rapidly evolving grid. As industrial load demand grows — driven by AI, electrification, and data infrastructure — our energy systems must evolve beyond the limitations of short-duration batteries and fossil peakers. This discussion will explore how multi-day storage solutions can accelerate industrial growth, ensure grid reliability, and unlock round-the-clock renewable energy.
Speakers: Derek Thompson: Journalist and co-author of Abundance; Kate Brandt: Chief Sustainability Officer, Google; Amanda Peterson Corio: Global Head of Data Center Energy, Google.
Theme: Step inside the unseen world of data centers. Where the Internet Lives takes you behind the scenes of Google’s data centers with a live storytelling experience, drawn from the award-winning podcast and video series. You’ll hear stories about how AI and data centers are unlocking the next wave of American innovation — accelerating clean energy technologies, supporting resiliency solutions, and modernizing the energy system.
Speakers: Josh Parker, Head of Sustainability, NVIDIA; Barbara Humpton, CEO, Siemens USA; Chris Phalen, Vice President of Domestic Policy, National Association of Manufacturers
Theme: The landscape of energy is undergoing a seismic shift – from the sources we rely on to the way we consume and optimize it. The advent of AI is revolutionizing the energy conversation, transforming power consumption and unleashing unprecedented potential for optimization and efficiency.
Speakers: Abhishek Sastri, Founder of Fluix; Eren Aksu, Co-founder of ThreeV; Cem Mimaroglu, ComposeVC GP
Theme: As climate challenges strain infrastructure and energy systems, a new wave of startups is applying AI beyond digital workflows to solve problems in the physical world. Physical AI systems interact with and make decisions about real-world infrastructure, buildings, grids, and equipment by combining real-time data with machine learning. These systems sense, interpret, and act on the physical environment to optimize operations.
Theme: The exponential growth of generative AI is rapidly derailing global and regional climate targets, sucking up vast resources and harming the often marginalized communities that live near the data centers and other sites that house and manufacture AI’s physical infrastructure. However, you’d hardly know it from listening to the Big Tech companies that are driving its growth, which push a misleading narrative about how AI will save the planet from climate breakdown while obscuring its real and current harms.
Theme: Between greenwashing and unproven hype, how can you tell which AI applications are helpful for climate? At this event, we’ll cut through the press releases and hear directly from practitioners and technologists with real-world case studies and metrics. Whether you’re a funder, founder, or policymaker, you’ll leave with a grounded sense of where AI is helping, where it’s hype, and what to watch next.
