Climate Week NYC 2025: A Quick Recap
Climate Week NYC 2025 brought thousands of leaders, activists, researchers, and storytellers from across the world to the Big Apple, all working toward the same goal: accelerating real climate action ahead of COP30 in Brazil’s Belém City.
For Team SFOC, it was a week of connection and collaboration, ranging from panels and strategy discussions we hosted to joining all sorts of spontaneous encounters to long-awaited reunions across the city.
Across the week, several threads connected our conversations and experiences:
Against a backdrop of uncertainty and defunding climate projects, there is a renewed sense of urgency to move past fossil fuel dependency, especially around LNG and hydrogen despite all the hurdles we face in the current political climate.
Growing global attention to just transition finance and the impacts of shifting our energy sources to renewables, from innovative clean tech to climate philanthropies.
The importance of communication, storytelling, and collaboration as the heart of climate advocacy, and the power of compassion in driving change.
Here, we’ve captured our team’s most memorable moments throughout the week, sharing what inspired us most and how these experiences will continue to shape SFOC’s mission of amplifying Asia’s climate leadership on the global stage.
1. Highlights from the Team
Yewon Lee, Finance Team:
The trip provided a meaningful opportunity to meet partners directly and gain a deeper understanding of our work. It inspired reflection on how supporting, administrative departments like Finance can help other teams work more efficiently. Observing how program teams and partners interact revealed how collaborative decisions are made in practice. Witnessing the Development team’s strong communication and collaboration skills in action heightened my understanding of the effort behind maintaining partnerships. For the Finance team, engaging with the field expanded our role beyond numbers, deepening our sense of responsibility.
Younglak Hong, Gas Team:
What I felt during this NYCW trip was that, beyond the topics I usually deal with at SFOC, was a need to think more deeply about the essence of my work.
One of my most memorable moments was former Vice-President Al Gore’s presentation on “Cancer Alley,” a region in the U.S. suffering from pollution caused by the petrochemical industry. Among the audience were people who had lost family members because of that pollution. Seeing how precise data visualization and research can uncover hidden problems and support affected communities was deeply moving. It reminded me once again that what I do isn’t just about research or policy; it’s about making the world a better place.
Janghyeok Lim, Power Market & Grid Team:
Despite the difficult political climate, it was very inspiring to see state and local level leadership forging ahead with energy transition efforts. Their remarks on how tackling climate change went hand in hand with creating better living conditions for residents really resonated with my work tackling fossil fuel power plants. Listening to stories of environmental defenders strengthened my belief that empowering grassroots movements is crucial for creating lasting change. Overall, I felt empowered to see climate leadership alive and well at Climate Week NYC.
Emma Nijssen, Development Team:
Climate Week NYC 2025 was my first overseas business trip and my first Climate Week. As a member of the Development Team, my focus was engaging with partners to check in and align goals. I was positively surprised by the strong sense of camaraderie across the communities present. Partners were excited to hear about our work, upcoming opportunities and even our challenges. It was a welcome experience to chat candidly with partners across various sectors and levels.
Hoyean Choi, Legal Team:
Attending events on climate litigation, I was once again reminded of how essential it is to come together and share experiences and insights that we have gained through various forms of climate action, including (quasi-) litigation. As a lawyer only trained to practice Korean law within the Korean jurisdiction, I have often found myself limited to a rather narrow viewpoint based on my knowledge of the Korean legal system. However, Climate Week NYC was a great opportunity to broaden my perspective on the variety of ways litigation, as a tool for climate advocacy, can evolve and succeed. It was also amazing to learn about various discourses surrounding climate litigation that have emerged outside Korea, such as discussions on the protection of environmental defenders and indigenous peoples.
Chaejin Shin, Strategy Team:
As a Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Analyst in the Strategy Team at SFOC, I’ve always hoped to engage with professionals and institutions that maintain rigorous systems to capture and assess their impact. During the session “Measuring What Matters: Evidence, Impact, and Systems Change” hosted by the Sidebar, I had the opportunity to share insights on SFOC’s evolving MEL system and to learn from others about how to effectively measure impact across diverse and rapidly changing contexts. While many discussions centered on project-level monitoring, it was inspiring to hear about the diverse applications of MEL systems across sectors, ranging from project management in international organizations and NGOs to budgeting in financial institutions, transparency initiatives in medical agencies, and investment tracking for investors. The dialogue on how artificial intelligence is expected to transform MEL systems in the coming years was particularly thought-provoking, highlighting both the opportunities and challenges for evidence-based impact measurement.
Andrea Leung, International Communications Team:
I had the joy of listening to eloquent orators throughout the week, including Tzeporah Berman, Katharine Hayhoe, and Benjamin Backer. There is nothing more important than storytelling and narratives in times where misinformation and polarising articles run rampant. It is more important now than ever to state facts, tell stories of real experiences, and spread hope with words.
It feels wonderful to be inspired, and as a member of the International Communications Team, this is a wonderful reminder that we can help the climate by changing the discourse one at a time.
4. The Way Forward
As we head toward COP30 in Belém, SFOC remains committed to building bridges and driving change amongst Asian civil society, media, and international partners. The dialogues and relationships forged in New York will aid in our next steps strengthening cross-regional collaboration and amplifying stories that can drive real policy change across the globe.
If you met us during the week and would like to connect, we’d love to continue the conversation.
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