Reckoning with climate change can feel overwhelming, but the 16th-annual Climate Week NYC in September offered only optimism, with more than 100,000 participants from around the world meeting to push for climate progress, consider how to decarbonize energy systems, and more.

“Climate Week NYC has never been about what you can do as individuals,” Climate Group CEO Helen Clarkson said in her opening remarks. “It’s what we can do together.”

The Climate Pledge Hub, sponsored by McKinsey Sustainability, brought together 800 signatory representatives and invited guests September 22-25 to collaborate on climate challenges and topics including how businesses can work toward a more inclusive and equitable climate strategy and collaborate with government to drive climate action. Among the highlights: our first-ever beauty summit, which we co-hosted with Saie. 

“I think for a lot of people who are working on climate or sustainability, sometimes it can feel like a lonely position and a lonely job,” said Naomi Morenzoni, who leads climate and innovation philanthropy at Salesforce. “There are great challenges ahead of us and we get hope and support in community. The Climate Pledge is such a great place for that.”

Here's a look at some of this year’s top sessions:

Activating TCP platforms: your climate action toolkit

Signatories gathered for a speed-dating-style workshop on how to use Climate Pledge platforms like Passport Academy, the Amazon Sustainability Exchange, and Carbon Credits to advance decarbonization goals. Conversation topics included sustainability solution matchmaking, programs for tracking and reporting progress, joint action projects and cohorts, how to procure high-quality carbon credits, and resources for building effective climate strategies.

Navigating COP30: a strategic briefing for business leaders

In this forward-looking session, COP30 Head of Strategy Túlio Andrade and Global Optimism Co-founder Tom Rivett-Carnac briefed executives on current business-climate collaboration and how the COP30 leadership team is strengthening its work with the Pledge community.

Strategic cost leadership: the competitive edge

Gabe Smith, vice president for Schneider Electric, and Sandra Leyva Martinez, head of sustainability - Americas, CHEP/Brambles, focused on how to quantify business opportunities and transform operational expenses into an advantage in this tactical workshop. Attendees learned how to communicate business cases for efficiency initiatives, focusing on operational excellence and risk mitigation. Smith and Martinez also covered how leading companies are leveraging operations to reduce costs, enhance productivity, and keep a competitive edge.   

Future-proofing the built world: decarbonization, power & AI at scale

In an executive-level session, Prologis Chief Energy and Sustainability Officer Susan Uthayakumar and Johnson Controls Vice President of Sustainable Infrastructure Jaime Paris Boisvert explored what it takes to transform buildings into climate-resilient assets. Participants learned about the technology shaping tomorrow’s infrastructure and unpacked how electrification, AI-enabled building systems, smart energy management, and distributed energy resources might unlock new climate solutions.

Unlocking new value chain solutions through carbon insetting 

How are carbon insets different from neutralization? What are some real-life examples of carbon insetting in action? Amazon Director of Net Zero Carbon Kerry Constabile addressed these and other questions during this informative session. Attendees explored how insets—investments in climate protection projects in a company’s value chain—can address hard-to-abate emissions across the value chain and how to collaborate to amplify emissions reductions.

AI leadership in a changing world

AI has the potential to revolutionize corporate decarbonization. How, exactly, can we harness it? Angel Hsu, the associate professor of public policy and environment, UNC Chapel Hill, and founding director, Data-Driven EcoLab, was joined Reckitt Head of Sustainability David Croft to tackle this pressing question, covering how AI solutions can overcome carbon accounting challenges, support supply chain transparency, mitigate risk, and enable data-driven decisions for effective climate action.

A conversation with Bill Nye “The Science Guy”

Amazon Chief Sustainability Officer Kara Hurst interviewed science educator Bill Nye about his long history of climate activism in a conversation that revealed Nye’s top priority: empowering women and girls around the world by increasing access to clean water, renewable energy, and the internet. “When you increase the standard of living for women and girls, it raises the standard for everyone,” he said.