That's a wrap for today, where Climate Week NYC took to the streets, parks and waterfront.
From neighborhood walks to community gatherings, Saturday’s events brought the climate conversation closer to the places people live. A few moments from across the city:
⭕ In Red Hook, Who Gets Shade? explored how trees, pavement and access to public space shape who feels extreme heat most.
⭕ At the Museum of Unnatural Disasters, Saad Amer CEO and Founder of Justice Environment spoke about the everyday effects of climate change, from pressures on workers to rising food prices.
⭕ In recognition of Climate Week NYC, Forbes has revisited some of Dr. Jane Goodall's most enduring lessons on conservation, action and our responsibility to the planet.
⭕ Dr. Tim Tiutan brought a health perspective: healthcare is already dealing with the consequences of extreme heat, wildfire smoke, food and water insecurity.
⭕ Along the waterfront, participants set out on a 24-mile walk organized by 24 The Planet, raising funds for land restoration in sub-Saharan Africa.
There’s still one day to explore. Find Sunday’s events on the official Climate Week NYC calendar.
05.00pm ET
In the news today
A summary of how data and AI tech can speed up our responses to climate change, not replace them, by Foodtank.
“Globally, we are seeing an increase in the weaponization of food,” says Michael Werz, Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. “Food security is one of the few areas where AI doesn’t totally freak me out.”
The panelists called for optimism grounded in reality. Data can show the benefits of local renewable energy and the role of plant-rich diets in addressing climate change, but evidence alone rarely shifts behavior. Building the momentum to act still takes work, said our CEO, Helen Clarkson. “It doesn’t just magically happen.”
Photo credit: Food Tank
04.30pm ET
"We treat climate change like a problem for the next generation, when healthcare is already tackling its consequences in this one."
Dr. Tim Tiutan @doctortim.md shared how climate affects health, extreme heat, wildfire smoke, air pollution, food and water insecurity, infectious disease and mental health. Plus, how the best solutions come from collaborating and learning from one another.
Photo courtesy of Dr. Tim Tiutan
04.00pm ET
In the news today
Greek Social Enterprise Enaleia, which works to reduce marine plastic pollution and promote sustainable fishing practices, makes New York Debut at Climate Week NYC 2026.
In The National Herald Sakellariou, Partnerships and Impact Coordinator for Enaleia, described Climate Week NYC events as both “inspirational and educational,” noting that some of the events offered a close look at how major companies approach sustainability.
02.00pm ET
Twenty-four miles along the New York waterfront, and they set off from Battery Park at seven this morning.
The fourth annual walk from 24 The Planet takes the whole day. It isn't a race, in the organizers' words: you set the pace, you take the breaks, you keep going. There are walking meditations, shared meals, a keynote, walking yoga and a DJ along the way, and the fundraising goes to land restoration in sub-Saharan Africa, at around $9.30 per 124 square meters permanently reforested.
Twenty-four hours in a day, twenty-four miles, and a city you only really see at walking pace.
A 24 mile walk to close out Climate Week in style
01.00pm ET
In recognition of Climate Week NYC, Forbes has revisited some of Dr. Jane Goodall's most enduring lessons on conservation, action and our responsibility to the planet.
12pm ET
Saad Amer, Founder, CEO, Justice Environment visited the Climate Action Campaign's Museum of unnatural disasters. Saad Amer highlighted how climate change is affecting communities across the country in different ways. From the pressures facing workers to rising food prices, its impacts are part of everyday life, wherever people live.
11.30am ET
Jerome Foster II - TIME Next Generation Leader and Co-Founder, WaicUp.org said:
"New York really showed up this week. With the UN General Assembly and Climate Week NYC following close on the heels of Fashion Week, it felt like an incredible moment for the city, and for the communities coming together in it.
A few highlights so far: the Treehouse with the George Duke Foundation, the Nat Gala, and The Hub Live with Climate Group. Through it all, I’ve been keeping an ear out for the birdsong and the natural world that inspires so much of this work.
There’s real momentum here. I’m excited to see where it takes us next."
Video courtesy of Jerome Foster II.
11.00am ET
Some of today's most interesting programming isn't about the future at all. It's about a two hour walk through Red Hook.
Who Gets Shade?, led by Yuliya Dzyuban of Pratt Institute with the John Jay College Water and Climate Justice Lab and Resilient Red Hook, covers a mile and a half and asks a question most heat policy skips: who actually gets the trees. Temperature, shade, pavement, buildings, access to public space. All of it decides who suffers in a heatwave and who barely notices one.
It's the same argument that ran through The Hub Live about co-benefits and who feels them, made at street level with a clipboard.
Who Gets Shade? Exploring Heat in Red Hook
10.00am ET
Business, circularity and food
The week's big questions, in weekend form. A stoop sale that keeps things out of landfill, a food drive at Tompkins Square Park, a world's fair of sustainability with live jazz, a room full of founders looking for funders, and a forum on the question that ran through The Hub Live all week: how the grid copes with what AI is about to ask of it. Join any of the following.
09.30am ET
Art, film and performance - Facts move people slowly, and one thing this week kept returning to is that the climate conversation needs more than data to land. Today the city makes the argument a different way: dance on the Hudson, a marching band parade for the harbor, Indigenous artists on a future built from relationship rather than extraction, open studios, and a free film screening in a Queens library. Join any of the following, and bring someone who wouldn't come to a panel.
09.00am ET
Justice, heat and who carries the cost - Climate doesn't land evenly on a city, and today's programme says so directly. Who gets the trees and who gets the asphalt. Who breathes what. Who pays for a wardrobe designed to be thrown away. And who has been organizing on all of it for longest, often with the least funding. Several of today's events put those questions at the centre rather than the edges. Join any of the following:
08.30am ET
Get your hands dirty
Plenty of this week has been spent talking about resilience. Today you can go and build some. Volunteers are planting dunes at the Rockaways, clearing shoreline at Shirley Chisholm State Park, mulching street trees in Harlem and surveying a 300 acre wetland while the birds are still migrating through. None of it needs experience, most of it needs nothing but closed-toed shoes, and several of them feed you. Join any of the following.
07.30am ET
Not in New York? Three sessions you can join from anywhere today, and all three are about young people.
06.30am ET
On foot and on two wheels
The easiest way to understand a city's climate is to move through it slowly. Where the shade falls, which streets hold the heat, what grows in the gaps between buildings, and how much of the waterfront you can actually reach on foot. A good part of today's programme is built around exactly that, from a full day's walk along the water to a free bike tour of Central Park and a repair class that sends you home able to fix your own brakes. Join any of the following, or just pick a direction and walk.
06.00am ET
The weekend is where Climate Week NYC belongs to the city itself. Today's calendar is cleanups and bike repair, garden tours and film screenings, a 24 mile walk along the waterfront, and a summit at the Natural History Museum. Most of it is free, and most of it is outdoors.
Find your own with the events calendar and map.