Frontline Climate Week NYC
September 20-28, 2025
Frontline Communities Lead the Way
Beyond Greenwashing: Centering Justice and Real Climate Action
Climate Justice Alliance members will be on the ground in so-called New York on Lenape land from Sept. 21-28, 2025 for Climate Week NYC. We are fighting the bad, building the new, reclaiming our breath, our lands and our future. Local NYC environmental justice and climate justice communities are leading with real climate solutions.
Much of mainstream Climate Week NYC has devolved into prioritizing corporate greenwashing and flashy presentations over real action. Instead of addressing the urgency of the climate crisis, the event serves as a platform for businesses to promote new investment funds, too-good-to-be-true techno-scams, and hollow green pledges, with major sponsors tied to some of the world’s most destructive companies. This corporate-driven approach is harmful to our communities.
In contrast, Frontline Climate Week events center frontline communities—those hit first and worst by climate impacts. We push for transformative solutions rooted in justice, equity, and community power, not in corporate profits. Real climate action is driven by grassroots movements and local victories, not just by international summits.
Photos from UPROSE’ Climate Justice Youth Summit by Rae Breaux
Schedule of Frontline Climate Week Events
Below is a snapshot of some of the key events that Climate Justice Alliance member groups will be part of during Climate Week NYC.
Saturday
Sept. 20
10:30AM – 3:30PM
FutureFEST: Climate Reimagined
The New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance’s inaugural FutureFEST: Climate Reimagined, is a free and inclusive space open to all ages and designed to bring together individuals committed to building a healthier, more just future.
Monday
Sept. 22
9:30pm – 12pm
Blessing of the Four Corners by Indigenous Lifeways & the Diné Tribe
The attendees are able to offer support by good thoughts and prayers in the ceremony. The ceremony is being conducted to offer another line of defense in the fight against threats to the Diné people and our homelands.
Monday
Sept. 22
12:30pm – 1:30pm
Uncharted Waters: Examining Risks of Marine Geoengineering
As the climate crisis intensifies, marine geoengineering (MGE) has emerged as a controversial set of proposed interventions aimed at altering ocean chemistry or ecosystems to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Sunday
Sept. 21
9:30am – 4:30pm
BIPOC Climate Justice Summit: Power Shift
This year’s summit convenes frontline communities, organizers, researchers, funders, and public servants to build collective power and advance transformative climate justice.
Monday
Sept. 22
5pm – 9pm
Black Earth, Bright Futures: An Evening of Film, Celebration and Conversation
Presented by The Black Hive & Climate Justice Alliance in collaboration with the Tishman Center at The New School.
Tuesday
Sept. 23
10am – 12pm
Building Local to Global Climate Coalitions Powered by Communities
At a time when environmental policy, regulations, research, and budgets face unprecedented and systemic attacks, new climate coalitions are emerging, from local neighborhoods to the global stage.
Tuesday
Sept. 23
5pm – 8pm
An evening with frontline community members and allies from Brazil. Be part of a powerful exchange and dialogue on the climate moment.
Wednesday
Sept. 24
4:30pm – 7:30pm
Women in Action for Climate Justice and a Just Transition
Path to COP30 and Beyond
Wednesday
Sept. 24
1pm – 3:30pm
Making the Connection: Climate Justice in the Age of AI
The advancement and usage of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has skyrocketed, along with the demand for land, energy, and water to power data centers. If you use AI, are curious about how its growth is affecting the planet, or want to reduce it’s harm then this is the panel for you.
Following the panel, we will be hosting a non-alcoholic social hour featuring artwork from Creative Wildfire.
Wednesday
Sept. 24
6:30pm – 8pm
A Land Rights Campaign for Puerto Rico
Join us at The People’s Forum for an inspiring evening dedicated to fighting for land rights in Puerto Rico!
Friday
September 26
12 – 6pm
UPROSE Slow Fashion Event
Mending – A mending station for damaged clothes on the 3rd floor!
Clothing Swap – A section for a clothing swap amongst attendees
Global Impacts of Sustainable Fashion, 1pm – 2pm
Accessibility to Sustainable Fashion, 3pm – 4pm
Runway & Talk Back, 4pm – 5:30pm
Saturday
September 27
7 – 8:30pm
Fever Pitch Show
a fusion of live music, dance, and video centered on climate justice—presenting at select community spaces for free or at a sliding scale, with a post-show panel conversation with local climate and social justice organizers.
Join UPROSE for Climate Week from September 22-26, 2025
UPROSE’s Climate Justice Lives Here initiative grew out of NYC Climate Week becoming Manhattan-centric and marginalizing frontline communities.
Climate Justice Lives Here represents our commitment to environmental justice in our frontline communities. This week-long series of events brings together activists, community members, and allies to address the climate crisis through the lens of social justice.
Join us in Sunset Park in Brooklyn, New York for a transformative week of climate justice activism, community-led workshops, and environmental justice initiatives.
For more information, visit https://climatejusticeliveshere.org/calendar
The People’s Solutions Lens
for Climate and Economic Policy Proposals at Climate Week NYC
It can be difficult to keep up with the slew of climate solutions that are going to be discussed at Climate Week NYC, and not all “solutions” are inherently equitable or just. Fortunately, we’ve identified five straight-forward questions that can help you separate false solutions from the real deal. Use the People’s Solutions Lens to determine whether the various policy proposals that are being brought forward at Climate Week are rooted in justice for workers, frontline communities, and the environment:
1 Who tells the story? Frontline communities and workers are impacted first and worst by the interlinked crises of climate change and the extractive, exploitative economy. We speak for ourselves, and hold the wisdom, vision, and organizing power to lead climate and economic solutions. Yet, often times, others claim to speak for us without necessarily representing our interests. As we often say, nothing about us without us is for us.
2 Who makes the decisions? The environmental justice movement defines environment as “where we live, work, play, and pray.” Whether it’s the factory floor or the neighborhood, those closest to the problems will inevitably know the most about what the solutions need to look like. For any other climate or economic policy to truly work for Indigenous Peoples, Black communities, immigrants and refugees of color, and working class communities, it must embody the practice of community self-determination.
3 Who benefits, and how? The climate crisis is ecological, but it has its roots in systemic inequity that is racial, gendered, and economic. To address these root causes, authentic climate and economic policy solutions must flip the existing dynamics around racial injustice, wealth extraction, and labor exploitation.
4 What else will this impact? Sometimes environmental and climate policies or “solutions” can create new problems for other issues that we care about— e.g. workers’ rights, housing, economic development, immigration, policing, mass incarceration, etc. Real solutions must work for ALL of our issues. No false solutions. No more sacrifice zones.
5 How will this build or shift power? To address the climate crisis at scale, individual and collective solutions must put us in a better position to pursue subsequent solutions. Transformative solutions, then, must do more than accomplish individualized goals, specific policies, or select elections; they must shift the landscape of political, economic, and cultural power such that subsequent goals become more attainable. Climate and economic policy proposals must be organizing tools that bring together a mass movement of people, workers, and communities. This is imperative to ensure the implementation phase is both inclusive and equitable.
