GeSI at NYC Climate Week ’26:
Impact in Action
Four days, four venues, one purpose: turning ambition into measurable impact.
Join us — and see what impact in action really looks like.
Starting in:
GeSI Climate Week Tracks
AI & the Planet
how artificial intelligence can power sustainable growth in developing economies, enabling circular models, resource efficiency and inclusive access.
Read More →AI for Resiliency
with Columbia University: how AI and connectivity strengthen disaster readiness and community resilience
Read More →Sustainable Supply Chains and AI Infrastructure
the footprint of the digital sector itself: supply chains, data centres and the modernisation of AI infrastructure.
Read More →Impact Measurement and Climate Finance
connecting sustainability performance to capital: impact measurement, investor expectations and emerging standards such as Scope 4 and the EGDC
Read More →Agenda Framework
DAY 1
AM
AM
Riverside Park – Manhattan, NY
8:00 - 10:00am
Monday, 09/21/2026
Members Only Event
Verizon Tree Planting Volunteerism Event (Invitation Only)
DAY 1
PM
PM
Globant Offices
Monday, 09/21/2026GeSI NYC 2026 – Welcome Opening Session
DAY 2
AM
AM
The Nest Campus
Tuesday, 09/22/2026GeSI Opening Booth at The Nest Campus
DAY 2
PM
PM
Columbia University Teachers’ College
Tuesday, 09/22/2026AI 4 Resiliency Track
DAY 3
AM
AM
UNDP Headquarters sponsored by UNDP & CODES
Wednesday, 09/23/2026AI & The Planet Track
DAY 3
PM
PM
Plataforma Steakhouse (mid-town Manhattan)
6:30 - 9:00pm
Wednesday, 09/23/2026
Members Only Event
GeSI 25th Anniversary Dinner
DAY 4
AM
AM
Globant office
Thursday, 09/24/2026AI Infrastructure Track / AI Impact & Finance Track
DAY 4
PM
PM
Columbia University Teachers' College - The Schwarz Room (Rm 305)
Thursday, 09/24/2026Members Only Event
University Coalition Dialogue (DEFIA)
Schedule & Venues
DAY 1 – Riverside Park – Manhattan, NY
8:00-10:00 am Monday, 09/21/2026
Verizon Tree Planting Volunteerism Event (Invitation Only)
Invitation Only
Venue Information
Manhattan, New York, NY 10025
Getting There
Invitation only
DAY 1 – Globant Offices
Monday, 09/21/2026
2:00-3:30pm
GeSI NYC 2026 – Welcome Opening Session & Keynote Speaker
Luis Neves
CEO of GeSI
Jim Gowen
Verizon
James Grabert
(Keynote speakers)
UNFCCC
Georg Kell
(Keynote speakers)
Arabesque Group
3:30 – 4:00pm
Coffee & Refreshments
Venue Information
251 Park Avenue S, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10010
Getting There
23 St station (Park Avenue South at 23rd Street), Line 6 — 2–3 minute walk.
DAY 2 – The Nest Climate Campus
Tuesday, 09/22/2026
8:00-10:00am
GeSI Opening Booth at The Nest Campus
Sandro Mesquita
GeSI
Virtual Sessions
10:00-11:00am
European Green Digital Coalition (EGDC): An Introduction
Andreas Candido
GeSI
Venue Information
Javits Center North, 445 11th Avenue, New York, NY 10001
Getting There
34 St–Hudson Yards station, Line 7 — 5 minute walk.
DAY 2 – Columbia University Teachers’ College
Tuesday, 09/22/2026
AI 4 Resiliency Track
1:00-1:30pm
Opening Remarks, Welcome and Keynote
Sandro Mesquita
GeSI
Prof. Lena Verdeli
Columbia University – Teachers College
Yutaka Okano
(keynote speakers)
NEC
1:30-2:15pm
AI 4 Resiliency Panel 1
Dr. Jeff Schlegelmilch (Moderator)
Columbia University
Kay Seo
NEC Labs America
Sam Enoka
Greensparc
Elias Habbar-Baylac
Cisco
Christian DeSeglise
Mundi Investments / One Planet Labs
Tim Kelly
GCA
2:15-3:00pm
AI 4 Resiliency Panel 2
Dr. Thomas Chandler
(Moderator)
Columbia University – NCDP
Shannon Carroll
AT&T
Richard Stockdale
Oxygen Conservation UK
Natasha Cavanaugh
Twilio
Nizar Kammourie
SAWACO
Donald Leka
Jumptuit
3:00-3:15pm
Coffee & Refreshments
3:15-4:00pm
Disaster Readiness Panel 1 “CLIMRR Case Study
Dr. Lucille Blakely (Moderator)
Columbia University
Nathan Cobos
AT&T
Jordan Branham
Argonne National Laboratory
Johnathan Sury
NCDP
3:15-4:00pm
(Parallel Session Invite Only) Strategic Session on AI 4 Resiliency Work Group
Sandro Mesquita (Moderator)
GeSI
Shannon Carroll
AT&T
Kay Seo
NEC Labs America
Dr. Thomas Chandler
Columbia University – NCDP
4:00-4:45pm
Disaster Readiness Panel 2 – “World Cup Case Study”
Elly Steers (Moderator)
Oxygen Conservation UK
Bill Squires
NFL / FIFA / MetLife Stadium
Josh DeVicenzo, Ed.D.
NCDP
Allison Karabu
NCDP
Kay Seo
NEC Labs America
Venue Information
525 W 120th Street, New York, NY 10027
Getting There
116 St–Columbia University station, Line 1 — 5 minute walk
DAY 3 – UNDP Headquarters sponsored by UNDP & CODES
Wednesday, 09/23/2026
AI & The Planet Track
8:30-9:00am
Welcome & Registration
9:00-9:10am
Welcoming remarks from CODES
Dirk Messner
UBA
9:10-9:30am
Opening Inputs: AI & The Planet
Luis Neves
GeSI
9:40-10:55am
Round-table Interventions: Align / Accelerate / Mitigate
10:55-11:00
Conclusion & Next Steps
Virtual Sessions
10.00 - 11.00
European Green Digital Coalition: Getting Involved
Andreas Candido
GeSI
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Sponsor
Venue Information
304 East 45th Street, UNDP FF Building.
Getting There
Invitation only
DAY 3 – Plataforma Steakhouse (mid-town Manhattan)
6:30-9:00 pm Wednesday, 09/23/2026
GeSI 25th Anniversary Dinner – Keynote: Prof Jeff Sachs
6:30-9:00 pm
Welcoming remarks
Luis Neves
CEO of GeSI
Jim Gowen
Verizon
Dr. Jeffrey Sachs
(Keynote speakers)
Columbia University
Invitation Only
Sponsor
Venue Information
316 W 49th St, New York, NY 10019, USA
Getting There
Invitation only
DAY 4 – Globant Offices
Thursday, 09/24/2026
AI Infrastructure Track
8:30-8:45am
Opening Remarks and Welcome
Luis Neves
GeSI
Bernhard Kowatsch
(keynote speakers)
Un World Food Programme
8:45-9:30am
Supply Chain Panel
Ann Rosenberg (Moderator)
Celonis
Bernhard Kowatsch
Un World Food Programme
Koichi Noguchi
NEC
Reina Otsuka
UNDP
Bhushan Joshi
Ericsson
Thea Yu
Horizon Motor
9:30-10:15am
Data Center Panel
Dava Guthmiller (Moderator)
Greensparc
Nizar Kammourie
SAWACO
Faith Taylor
Kyndryl
Jean-Manuel Canet
Orange / ITU
Tom Moran
Colt/GeSI
Ms. Fiona Zhou
Obelisk
10:15-10:30am
Coffee & Refreshments
AI Impact & Finance Track
10:30-11:15am
White Paper – Modernization of AI Infrastructure in the US
Elaine Weidman Grunewald
(Moderator)
Yale University
Elias Habbar-Baylac
Cisco
Shannon Carroll
AT&T
Sandro Mesquita
Head of the Americas
11:15-11:45am
Impact Measurement & Investors Expectations
Steve Rochlin (Moderator)
Impact RoI
Facundo Armas
Globant
Tim Kelly
GCA
David Thielen
Nile Fiber
Gregory Stoupniztky
Early Bird Capital
11:45-12:30pm
Accelerating for Global Adoption & Impact COP31, UNSH & EGDC
Steve Rochlin
(Moderator)
Impact RoI
Nitin Arora
UNFCCC
Pedro Ivo Ferraz da Silva
COP30 - Itamaraty
Florian Groene
PwC
John VanD Lewis, Ph.D
Head of Government Affairs, SAPHI and Former Director USAID
Venue Information
251 Park Avenue S, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10010
Getting There
23 St station (Park Avenue South at 23rd Street), Line 6 — 2–3 minute walk
DAY 4 – UGIH high-level roundtable on
2:00–4:00pm Thursday, 09/24/2026
“Innovating the Energy Transition: Harnessing Artificial Intelligence to Scale Climate Solutions”.
Invitation Only
Venue Information
251 Park Avenue S, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10010
Getting There
- 23 St subway station (Park Avenue South at 23rd Street), Line 6 — a 2–3 minute walk.
Virtual Sessions
Impact Measurement and Climate Finance
10.00 - 11.00 AM 09/22/2026
European Green Digital Coalition (EGDC): An Introduction
10.00 - 11.00 AM 09/23/2026
European Green Digital Coalition (EGDC): Getting Involved
You can learn more about the EGDC through the website
https://www.greendigitalcoalition.eu/or through this brief brochure.
Download the EGDCBrochure Here
Global sponsors and Members
Become a Sponsor
Get in Touch
Prefer email?
info@gesi.org
ABOUT GeSI
Who We Are
The Global Enabling Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) is a leading, member-centric business association working on the enabling role of digital solutions in sustainability. For 25 years we have brought together industry, governments, the United Nations, universities and civil society to create and deploy digital solutions that address society’s most pressing challenges — and, just as importantly, to measure what those solutions actually deliver.
Our mission is to harness digital innovation to tackle global sustainability challenges, working with more than one hundred partners worldwide. We convene across sectors, build strategic partnerships, publish evidence-based research such as Digital Infrastructure Modernisation for an AI Future and Carbon Accounting for ICT, and run programmes and platforms — from the Digital with Purpose Movement to the United Nations Solutions Hub — that turn commitments into results. That is what we mean by impact in action: not ambition on a slide, but progress you can count.
NEW YORK CITY
Climate Week NYC 2026
What is Climate Week NYC?
Every September, while the United Nations General Assembly meets, New York becomes the centre of the climate conversation. Climate Week NYC is the largest annual gathering of climate leadership in the world: hundreds of events across the city bringing together heads of state, business leaders, investors, scientists, activists and civil society. It is the moment when the world takes stock of what has been promised, and asks what has actually been delivered.
GeSI at NYC Climate Week 2026
GeSI has been part of Climate Week since 2024. In 2026 we scale up: from a single day to four full days, across several venues in Manhattan, under one banner — Impact in Action. Together with our members, partners, the UN system and academia, we look at AI for development and for resilience, at the footprint of the digital sector itself, and at how sustainability performance connects to capital. Four days, four venues, one purpose: turning ambition into measurable impact.
About the Event
New York Climate Week is the largest annual gathering of climate leadership in the world, and the moment when governments, business and civil society take stock of progress. GeSI has been present since 2024; in 2026 we scale up.
Under the banner Impact in Action, GeSI NYC 2026 expands from a single-day presence to a full four-day programme across several venues in Manhattan, bringing together our members, partners, academia and the UN system around one question: how do we turn digital ambition into measurable climate and development impact?