CU Boulder at Climate Week NYC 2026
September 20–27, 2026 | New York City
This September, CU Boulder will bring its sustainability expertise to Climate Week NYC, hosting events and joining conversations with researchers, policymakers, business leaders, students and community partners from around the world.
Across more than a dozen events, CU Boulder faculty and sustainability leaders will speak, convene and collaborate on climate communication, energy, electrification, forests, information integrity and other pressing sustainability challenges. Together, they’ll bring research and lessons from Colorado into conversations shaping climate action far beyond campus.
Major CU Boulder Events
Breaking the Ice Before it Melts: Effective Climate Communication
Tuesday, September 22 | 12–2 p.m.
Penn Club of New York
CU Boulder: Max Boykoff, professor of Environmental Studies and Faculty Executive Director of the SPIKE Center for Sustainability Education
CU Boulder’s SPIKE Center for Sustainability Education and the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media will bring together some of today’s most recognizable science communicators to explore how climate communication can move people from information to action.
The panel will feature Bill Nye (The Science Guy), Chuck Nice, cohost of StarTalk, and Asher Jay, National Geographic Explorer, and will be moderated by climate scientist Michael Mann, director of Penn’s Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media. A networking hour will follow the discussion.
To register for the event, please email katie.neal@colorado.edu.
From the Ground Up: Mobilizing Subnational Partnerships with the GCF Task Force to Build New Forest Economies
Tuesday, September 22 | 8:30–10:30 a.m.
Latham & Watkins, 1271 Avenue of the Americas
CU Boulder: Colleen Scanlan Lyons, Associate Research Professor, Environmental Studies and MENV; Project Director, Governors’ Climate and Forests Task Force; Andrew Mayock, Vice Chancellor for Sustainability
This conversation will focus on how subnational governments and their partners can build new forest economies that support communities while conserving tropical forests. The discussion will explore how governments, investors, civil society and other partners can unlock finance, close capacity gaps and turn climate commitments into action. Colleen Scanlan Lyons will moderate, with Andrew Mayock providing closing remarks.
Rewriting the Climate Story: 10 Years of Climate Solutions with Grist
Wednesday, September 23 | 5:30–7 p.m.
Symphony Space, Leonard Nimoy Thalia, 250 W. 95th St.
CU Boulder: Jane Zelikova, Executive Director, Sustainability Research Initiative
Rewriting the Climate Story brings together people who have spent the past decade turning ambitious climate ideas into real-world change. The evening will feature personal stories from climate “Fixers,” along with a live Science Fridaypodcast recording with Flora Lichtman and Ayana Elizabeth Johnson. CU Boulder is part of the event through Jane Zelikova, whose work connects sustainability research with the people and decisions where it can have an impact.
Visualizing Climate Worlds: Data, AI, and Immersive Futures
Wednesday, September 23 | 3–5 p.m.
Performance Space New York, 150 1st Ave.
CU Boulder: Zia Mehrabi, Assistant Professor, Environmental Studies and Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering
How can data help people see and understand a changing planet? This Swissnex event brings together projects using data, modeling and visualization to make climate futures more tangible. Mehrabi will represent CU Boulder’s Better Planet Lab, which uses satellite data, sensors and AI to monitor food and environmental systems and develop tools that can support more resilient and equitable decision-making.
Climate communications, comedy and the next generation of storytellers
Sunday, September 20 | 12–6 p.m.
Fordham University, Lincoln Center
CU Boulder: Max Boykoff, professor of Environmental Studies and Faculty Executive Director of the SPIKE Center for Sustainability Education
CU Boulder, Penn’s Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media and HipHop Caucus will bring students together for a climate comedy workshop and showcase competition. Students will work with professional comedians and climate communicators before taking the stage for a public showcase in the evening. The winning student will have the opportunity to continue the conversation at a climate comedy event later in the week.
Information Integrity Solutions Dialogue: From Global Principles to Collective Action
Thursday, September 24
UN Headquarters, New York
CU Boulder: Max Boykoff, Professor of Environmental Studies and Faculty Executive Director of the SPIKE Center for Sustainability Education
Hosted by the United Nations and the Government of Brazil during the UN General Assembly High-level Week, this dialogue will bring together governments, researchers, civil society, media and other partners working to strengthen the integrity of the global information ecosystem. Boykoff will bring his expertise in climate communication to a discussion of practical solutions to misinformation and declining trust, including how access to reliable information can support climate action and informed decision-making.
This is a private, invitation-only event.
