Once a side event to the annual UN General Assembly meeting in New York, Climate Week NYC, kicking off on Sunday, has now eclipsed the diplomats. Insiders say many leaders will skip December’s COP29 climate gathering in Baku, Azerbaijan, and are trying to cram important conversations into meetings around UNGA and Climate Week.
The climate tech crowd, meanwhile, will fan out across the city at more than 600 events to talk FOAK (first-of-a-kind) projects, innovative climate solutions, adaptation investments, emerging market opportunities and other issues.
Here are a few things on our radar:
Exclusive: Lotus Award winner
Sixty-five applicants applied for Savia Ventures‘ Lotus Award celebrating Latina climate entrepreneurs. The winner: Andrea Bonilla of Mérida, Mexico-based BioPlaster Research, which converts sargassum seaweed into biodegradable packaging. Bonilla will receive the award next Thursday at Reassembly, Regeneration VC’s Climate Week event. Bonilla, who is raising a seed round to industrialize the process, has secured an annual $5 million letter of intent with Tianjin, China-based Great Packaging, along with LOIs from LatAm-based consumer-packaged goods companies, AbaMex and Refurbi. The goal of the award, Savia’s Andres Baehr tells ImpactAlpha, is to highlight and support the abundance of talented but underfunded Latina climate entrepreneurs. “We need portfolio diversity to get the best results.”
Climate and culture
Climate action isn’t all hard work. Climate Week will feature film festivals, science fairs and karaoke, among other pursuits. On Sunday, Sept. 22, Make Justice Normal hosts Street Works Earth, a day-long art and climate festival to provide a “hopeful and joyous space for climate action and discussion.” Eight artists and collectives were invited to collaborate with climate experts from the Environmental Defense Fund and Queens Climate Project.
The festival will take place on 34th Avenue, one of the longest open streets in America, in Jackson Heights, Queens, one of the most diverse neighborhoods of New York. Featured: Art from All Street Gallery, Kaleidospace, Cecilia Lim, Nitin Mukul, Bayeté Ross Smith, Sabina Sethi Unni, The Veggie Nuggets, and Jing (Ellen) Xu. Read more on the festival from ImpactAlpha contributing editor Monique Aiken and her Make Justice Normal co-founder Anjali Deshmukh.
Gender smart
There’s growing recognition among investors that gender is an important lever in creating inclusive and climate-resilient communities. “The gender and climate finance nexus matters because it’s about investing in the next frontier of climate solutions, tapping into the sheer economic growth and impact opportunity, and mitigating risk exposure to future-proof our portfolios,” says Sana Kapadia of Heading for Change.
Learn how and where investors are spotting the market opportunities in a discussion with ImpactAlpha’s David Bank, Kapadia and Jackie Vanderbrug of Heading for Change, Andrew Lee and Amantia Muhedini of UBS, Courageous Capital Advisors’ Laurie Spengler, MCE Social Capital’s Camilla Nestor, and The 22 Fund’s Tracy Gray. Register your interest for the session in New York, Tuesday, Sept. 24 at 4pm ET.
Climate alpha at Climate Week
On Monday, find ImpactAlpha’s David Bank speaking at the MIT Solve Challenge Finals… On Tuesday, see Amy Cortese lead a discussion on “How carbon markets finance social impact,” with Chris McKinney, James Cahalin, Daniel Sadik, Nicholas Jones and Amrita Bhandari… On Thursday, catch Sherrell Dorsey moderating at “Bold Eco Solutions: Diverse Minds Forum,” with Taj Eldridge, Lacey Reddix and Mike Hawthorne Jr., and a UNGA Climate Week reception hosted by VC Include and Lowenstein Sandler to advance equitable climate solutions (email [email protected] for an invite).
And check out, if you haven’t already, CTCV’s handy event tracker.
