What happens at Climate Week NYC matters more than ever.
Starting now and leading to COP26 — the United Nations climate talks — in November, global leaders and corporations must set the stage for significant climate commitments. EDF is focused on the biggest actions we can take right now to go bold on climate. Please join us.
Every moment. Every action. Every degree counts.
- Explainer
What makes COP26 so critical?
Important Climate Week NYC events
Please join EDF and our partners. Details and registration links below.
Monday, September 20
- Decarbonizing the Future of Flight
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM ET (8:00 AM – 9:00 AM PT)
Watch event recordingThe Sustainable Aviation Buyers Alliance (SABA), a collaboration between Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and eight Founding Companies, is working to accelerate the path to net zero aviation. Join us during Climate Week NYC for a panel discussion exploring the opportunities to advance sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), meet net-zero climate goals, and craft a greener future of flight.
Our panel discussion will explore upcoming opportunities for companies, airlines, organizations and even individuals to invest in SAF to reduce their carbon emissions from air travel and meet their climate goals; a preview of SABA’s sustainability framework that will ensure high-integrity environmental standards; and reflections from SABA’s founding companies on their motivation and experience to-date in supporting SAF to achieve their climate goals and lead the way toward net zero aviation.
Speakers/Panelists
- Co-moderator Kelley Kizzier, Vice President for Global Climate, EDF
- Co-moderator Jon Creyts, Managing Director, RMI
- Pedro Piris-Cabezas, Director for Sustainable International Transport, EDF
- Kim Carnahan, Head of SABA Secretariat
- Laura Hutchinson, Senior Associate, Climate-Aligned Industries, RMI
- Lisa Newman-Wise, Senior Manager and Chief of Staff, Sustainability & Climate Change, Deloitte
- Elena Schmidt, Interim Executive Director, Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials
- Lauren Uppink, Head of Aviation, Travel and Tourism, World Economic Forum
- Jop Weterings, Director of Environmental Sustainability, McKinsey & Company
Tuesday, September 21
- Maximizing Investor Influence to Stabilize the Climate
3:30 PM - 4:45 PM ET (12:30 PM - 1:45 PM PT)
Increasingly, investors are playing a leading role in the fight against climate change. How can we build on this momentum to ensure that the investment community accelerates the bold climate action required to meet the urgent challenges facing people and the planet?
Join Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), VoLo Foundation and leading experts for a discussion of how investor support for climate action can be a game changer in the battle to urgently reduce emissions, protect communities, and minimize financial risk.
Speakers/Panelists
- Introductory remarks: Thais Lopez Vogel,Co-Founder/Trustee, Volo Foundation
- Moderator: Tom Murray, Executive Vice President, Solutions, EDF
- Christopher James, Founder & Executive Chairman, Engine No.1
- Fred Krupp, President, EDF
- Mark Gallogly, Founder, Centerbridge Parnters
- Andrew Stevenson, Portfolio Manager, Voloridge Investment Management
- Yasmine Svan Saarela, Senior Sustainability Analyst, Legal & General Investment Management
- Advancing Clean Trucks
3:30 PM – 4:30 PM ET (12:30 PM – 1:30 PM PT)
Watch event recordingTransitioning New York’s trucks from diesel engines to zero-emission motors is one of the most powerful opportunities for the state to reduce climate pollution, spark economic growth, and improve equity and public health. This transition involves many moving parts and won’t happen overnight. That’s why adopting the Advanced Clean Trucks (ACT) rule requiring truck manufacturers to make a percentage of their models zero-emission by 2030 is the best course of action. While many states have introduced the rule, other than California, no other state has adopted it. This event would explore why adopting the ACT is so important to accelerate the deployment of zero-emission trucks. New York now has the opportunity to be the second state in the U.S. to adopt the rule and lead the Northeast and the country in the transition to electric vehicles.
Speakers/Panelists
- Mary Barber, Director, Regulatory and Legislative Affairs, EDF
- Larissa Koehler, Senior Attorney, Energy, EDF
- Jennifer Helfrich, Senior Manager, State Policy, Ceres
- Steve Moelk, Project Implementation Manager of zero emission delivery initiatives, IKEA U.S.
- James Sherman, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Climate Change Mitigation Technologies
Wednesday, September 22
- Transforming the Transportation Sector: The Race to Zero-Emitting Vehicles
Watch event recordingThe only way to meet our national climate goals is to transform the transportation sector. On August 5th, the President announced a vision that all passenger vehicles sold in the U.S. be zero-emitting by 2030. He was joined by the heads of the United Auto Workers and the "Big Three" U.S. automakers, who have made major commitments toward transitioning to zero-emitting vehicles, as well as $100 billion in investments in electrification to back up those targets. Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) experts will discuss the regulatory and industry landscape as the United States and other nations make major strides toward eliminating climate and health-harming pollution from the transportation sector while creating well-paying jobs and saving consumers money.
Speakers/Panelists
- Peter Zalzal, Associate Vice President for Clean Air Strategies, EDF
- Alice Henderson, Senior Attorney, EDF
- Chet France, Consultant to EDF and Former Division Director, U.S. EPA Office of Transportation and Air Quality
- Rachel Muncrief, Deputy Director, International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT)
- Michael Walsh, Independent Technical Consultant; Board Member Emeritus, International Council on Clean Transportation; and Former Deputy Assistant Administrator, U.S. EPA Office of Mobile Source Air Pollution Control
- How Data can Supercharge Efforts to Lower Pollution in Cities
10:00 AM - 11:00 AM ET (7:00 AM - 8:00 AM PT)
Watch event recordingThe sources of emissions that warm our planet and of local air pollution that chokes our cities are one and the same.
New technology is allowing us to map pollution street-by-street and share unprecedented amounts of pollution data. Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) has created an interactive map of Greater London based on modelling by Cambridge Environmental Research Consultants, displaying for the first time detailed information on the sources of health-harming air pollution. With a better understanding of which activities are causing pollution and where, leaders and communities can develop targeted solutions that clean the air, mitigate climate change and protect people’s health.
Please join us for a discussion of key lessons from London, as well as how new efforts to leverage data are shining a light on pollution at a scale and scope across the globe like never before.
Speakers/Panelists
- Elizabeth Fonseca, Senior Manager, Air Quality, EDF
- Amy Stidworthy, Principal Consultant, Cambridge Environmental Research Consultants
- Models for Private Leadership to Reduce Wasted Food 50% by 2030
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM ET (10:00 AM - 11:00 AM PT)
This session will demonstrate a model for action on food waste reduction through regional collaboration and a public-private partnership to leverage shared resources to reach climate goals. Additionally, this event will provide a pathway for action for additional food businesses to raise their ambition and join us in this work.
Speakers/Panelists
- Theresa Eberhardt, Project Manager, EDF+Business
- Mark Koppang, Director Of Sustainability, Raley's
- Julia Person, Sustainability Manager, Bob’s Red Mill
- Pete Pearson, Senior Director, Food Loss and Waste, World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
- Kyle Pogue, California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle)
- Armchair Interview with Fred Krupp, President – EDF (during the North America Climate Summit 2021)
4:45 PM - 5:00 PM ET (1:45 PM - 2:00 PM PT)
Watch event recordingSpeakers/Panelists
- Dirk Forrister, President & CEO, International Emissions Trading Association (IETA)
- Fred Krupp, President, EDF
Thursday, September 23
- GLF Amazonia Panel: Why a “Green Gigaton” Mobilization of Tropical Forest Finance Requires Inclusive, Equitable, and Collaborative Partnerships
8:30 AM – 10:00 AM ET (5:30 AM – 7:00 AM PT)
Watch event recordingNow, more than ever, is the time to increase ambition and seize opportunities for a ‘quantum’ shift in the scale of funding for tropical forest protection and research. This session, organized by the Green Gigaton Challenge and partners, will showcase concrete examples of the radical inclusivity and collaboration needed to achieve tropical forest protection at scale. Together, speakers from Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLC) organizations, NGOs and public-private tropical forest protection initiatives (including Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest finance (LEAF) Coalition and the Conserv initiative) will discuss key ingredients for successful, equitable and inclusive forest partnerships, as well as how opportunities generated by the Challenge can be leveraged to advance financial flows to forests in IPLC-managed lands.
Speakers/Panelists
- Moderator: Rocio Sanz Cortes, Managing Director, Supply, Emergent
- Ruben Lubowski, Associate Vice President, Climate & Forests Chief Natural Resource Economist, EDF
- Juan Carlos Jintiach, Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA)
- André Guimarães, Executive Director, Instituto de Pesquisa Ambiental da Amazonia (IPAM)
- Maria Victoria Suarez, REDD+ Safeguards Programme Officer, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
- Francisca Arara, President of the Governors' Climate and Forests (GCF) Task Force Regional Committee for Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities in Brazil; Head of Department, Institute of Climate Change, Acre, Brazil
- Ambition: COP26 and Beyond
10:30 AM – 12:00 PM ET (7:30 AM – 9:00 AM PT)
Watch event recordingCOP26 is a key political moment to advance climate action. The long-awaited conference is an opportunity for countries to deliver timely commitments compatible with the Paris Agreement’s goals of limiting temperature rise to 1.5°C, adapting to the adverse impacts of climate change and making financial flows consistent with both.
But given the stark messages of the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, we already know that we will still be far off track by the end of COP26. So what happens after Glasgow?
Join us online to hear perspectives from key thought leaders on where the world currently stands on climate ambition, what needs to be delivered at COP26, and what has to happen after Glasgow to get on track to achieving the Paris Agreement’s long-term goals - including through the global stocktake process.
Speakers/Panelists
- Opening Remarks: Nat Keohane, President, Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES)
- Moderator: Kaveh Guilanpour, Vice President of International Strategies, C2ES
- Richard Kinley, President, Foundation for Global Governance and Sustainability
- Rachel Kyte, Dean of The Fletcher School, at Tufts University
- Gonzalo Muñoz, High-Level Climate Champion of Chile
- Lavanya Rajamani, Professor of International Environmental Law, University of Oxford
- Todd Stern, Former U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change
- Cassie Flynn, Strategic Advisor on Climate Change, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
- Bryony Worthington, Co-Director, Quadrature Climate Foundation
- Closing remarks: Kelley Kizzier, Vice President of Global Climate, EDF
- Scaling Carbon Markets for People and the Planet
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM ET (10:00 AM – 11:00 AM PT)
A future where people and nature prosper together requires dramatic cuts in greenhouse gas emissions and economic opportunity for people. How do we achieve both at the same time? Voluntary carbon markets can be an important part of the solution.
Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and leading experts will convene during NYC Climate Week for a discussion of how voluntary carbon markets can help drive climate action while supporting climate-positive economic growth.
Speakers/Panelists- Moderator: Tom Murray, Executive Vice President, Solutions, EDF
- Angela Churie Kallhauge, Head of Carbon Pricing Leadership, World Bank
- Alexia Kelly, Director, Netzero & Nature, Netflix
- Kelley Kizzier, Vice President, Global Climate, EDF
- Elizabeth Sturcken, Managing Director, EDF+Business
- Meeting the Moment: How U.S. Innovation Policy Can Accelerate a Cleaner, Stronger and More Equitable Economy
Watch event recordingFederal investments in clean energy and climate innovation remain essential to tackling the unprecedented challenges presented by climate change. Climate innovation is a powerful tool that can create jobs, increase energy reliability and resilience, improve the quality of life for all communities, and catalyze both progress and game-changing breakthroughs that we’ll need to shift the U.S. economy to net zero by 2050. Progress in the United States could also help other countries achieve their climate goals more quickly and affordably. But how can we best shape climate innovation policy today so it achieves all these objectives? Join Environmental Defense Fund, Third Way, leaders from government, labor and advocacy in a virtual discussion to explore how climate innovation policies and approaches can meet the moment at hand.
Fireside Chat
- Mandela Barnes, Lieutenant Governor, State of Wisconsin
- Moderator: Josh Freed, Senior Vice President, Climate and Energy Program, Third Way
- Chris Deschene, Board Member, National InterTribal Energy Council
- Jason Walsh, Executive Director, Bluegreen Alliance
- Jetta Wong , Senior Fellow, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, and President, JLW Advising
- Moderator: Natasha Vidangos , Senior Director, Climate Innovation and Technology, EDF
- Climate Resilience in the Caribbean: Lessons from Puerto Rico and Cuba
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM ET (11:00 AM - 12:00 PM PT)
This event will be in English and Spanish
As extreme weather events become more frequent, there are resilience lessons to be drawn from communities in the Caribbean who are on the front line of climate change. In Puerto Rico, new policies are in place that mandate 100% renewables by 2050 and small communities throughout the island are leading the way with projects that provide clean, affordable and resilient power to those most in need. In Cuba, new networks are in place in which fishers, scientists and managers are working together to develop new approaches for climate ready fisheries. Creating a modern, more resilient electric system throughout Puerto Rico and maintaining sustainable and resilient marine ecosystems in Cuba can serve as models for other countries in the Caribbean and around the world.
Speakers/Panelists
- Moderator: Daniel Whittle, Senior Director, Caribbean, EDF
- Agustín F. Carbó, Senior Manager, Energy Transition, EDF
- Jose Gerhartz, Conservation Specialist, Caribbean Biological Corridor Program in Dominican Republic, Cuba, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
- Adi Martínez-Román, Director of Operations, Resiliency Law Center, University of Puerto Rico School of Law
- Valerie Miller, Director, Cuba Oceans Program, EDF
- Silvia Patricia González Díaz, Professor, Center for Marine Investigation, University of Havana, Cuba
- Climate Ambition Teams: a Model for Climate Cooperation
4:00 PM - 5:30 PM ET (1:00 PM - 2:30 PM PT)
Watch event recordingClimate Ambition Team (CATs) are an innovative approach to promote economy-wide emission reductions across small teams of countries, under the umbrella of Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement. An international team of researchers in collaboration with climate negotiators from several countries and private sector carbon trading experts are testing the potential of this approach for Chile and New Zealand. The event will show progress in the development of a crediting baseline in Chile.
Speakers/Panelists
- Suzi Kerr, Chief Economist, EDF
- Francisco Pinto, Climate Action Teams
- José Miguel Valdés, Universidad Pontificia Católica de Chile
- Francisco Meza, Universidad Pontificia Católica de Chile
- Sarah Deblock, Ministry for the Environment, New Zealand
- Paul Young, Climate Change Commission, New Zealand
- Juan Pedro Searle, Head of Climate Change, Ministry of Energy, Chile
- Paolo Palotti, Country Manager & CEO, ENEL Chile
- Ana Pueyo, Climate Action Teams
- Defend Our Bees - Bee Week
5:30 PM - 7:30 PM ET (2:30 PM - 4:30 PM PT)
Watch event recordingJoin us for a panel discussion about bees and their impact on the planet, and how they are being affected by the devastating results of climate change. We're excited to hear from folks at the Bee Conservancy as well as the New York Bee Sanctuary about climate change and bees, and, most importantly, what YOU can do to help our pollinator friends.
Speakers/Panelists
- Host: Kylin Wagner, Senior Manager, Defend Our Future
- Rebecca Louie,, Managing Director, The Bee Conservancy
- Angell Deer, Founder & Executive Director, NY Bee Sanctuary
Friday, September 24
- Run on Less: How E-trucks are Delivering the Future
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM ET (8:00 AM – 9:00 AM PT)
Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) and North American Council for Freight Efficiency’s (NACFE) Run on Less event is an on-road, real-world demonstration for commercial battery electric trucks. Partnering with household names from Frito Lay and Anheuser-Busch to DHL, it will showcase the current state of the technology and highlight the opportunity to accelerate adoption of zero-emissions freight movement. The event will culminate in September with the results of 13, real-world demonstrations of zero-emissions goods movement.
Speakers/Panelists
- Jason Mathers, Director, Vehicles & Freight Strategy, EDF
- Mike Roeth, Executive Director, North American Council for Freight Efficiency
- Rob Reich, EVP, Chief Administrative Officer, Schneider
- Carbon Credit Quality Initiative: How to Identify High-quality Carbon Credits?
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM ET (9:00 AM – 10:00 AM PT)
Watch event recordingDemand for carbon credits is growing, but the lack of clarity on what constitutes high-quality credits creates uncertainty for buyers thereby limiting their ambition and constraining investment in climate mitigation.
To help buyers identify high integrity credits being sold on the market, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Oeko-Institut initiated the Carbon Credit Quality Initiative. The project’s goal is to provide independent, user-friendly scores and other information on carbon credit quality. Join the event for a presentation on how the Carbon Credit Quality Initiative is assessing carbon credits and hear from major carbon market stakeholders on challenges they face in identifying high quality credits, and how the initiative can help address these.
Speakers/Panelists
- Kelley Kizzier, Vice President, Global Climate, EDF
- Lambert Schneider, Research Coordinator for International Climate Policy, Oeko-Institut
- Mandy Rhambaros, General Manager, Just Energy Transition, Eskom Holdings
- John O. Niles, Senior Manager, Natural Climate Solutions, Salesforce