What do Climate Week NYC and UNGA Mean for Impact Investing in 2025?
Not Another Climate Week Roundup
This week, New York has once again been the stage where climate convictions dance with geopolitics.
Climate Week NYC has reached record size, with about 1,000 events taking place.
Downtown, at the UN General Assembly, Trump made a splash by calling climate change a “con job” and leaning into support for the oil & gas industry, while other leaders lean into progress on the UN’s sustainable development goals (SDGs).
The Week’s Core Theme
Climate Tech and Renewable Energy Shine with Opportunity
Two podcasts I heard this week frame the future in a compelling light.
Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI (on What Now? with Trevor Noah), said AI will help us make renewable energy so efficient and cheap over the next 20 years that we’ll be able to desalinate vast amounts of seawater, end the world’s water crises, and support life in regions that otherwise face desertification.
Journalist Amy Cortese, on ImpactAlpha’s pre-Climate Week episode of This Week in Impact, relayed billionaire investor Tom Steyer’s view that oil & gas are rapidly becoming stranded assets. The thesis holds water—because when renewable electricity becomes affordable and electric vehicles abundant, who will pay for expensive oil & gas?
Steyer said 93% of new electricity capacity added in 2024 is renewable. The International Energy Agency (IEA) says EVs are on track to make up over 25% of all new car sales in 2025—largely driven by China’s BYD, now the world’s largest EV maker—and 40% by 2030.
The IEA also reported in June that “around USD 2.2 trillion is going collectively to renewables, nuclear, grids, storage, low-emissions fuels, efficiency and electrification, twice as much as the USD 1.1 trillion going to oil, natural gas and coal.”
This makes oil & gas investments look like money down the well. In a word—risky. Meanwhile, renewable energy and climate tech—like carbon capture, battery tech, solar, wind, nuclear, and hydro—scream opportunity.
This is the potent dose of optimism we needed. It finally feels like the energy transition is gaining momentum and becoming unstoppable.
We’re not there yet, but doubling down on oil & gas in 2025 feels a bit like doubling down on Blockbuster Video in the 1990s.
Key Investment Activity This Week
Climate Week has delivered several concrete steps that show momentum in climate finance is returning.
Here are the highlights:
New Forums for Solutions
Sorenson Impact Institute convened sessions on nature-based solutions and outcomes-based financing—connecting capital directly with ideas that scale resilience.
The Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) hosted its first Climate Solutions Investing Roundtable, aimed at surfacing gaps and sparking partnerships across the sector.
Capital for Climate Tech
Climate unicorns — The All Aboard Coalition is close to raising $300M to back promising climate tech ventures positioned to break into unicorn territory.
De-risking first movers — Trellis Climate and the GreenieRE Coalition launched a joint venture, VenSurety, offering surety bonds that help climate tech startups secure financing for novel technologies.
More Big Capital Moves
Under-explored territory — Tom Steyer’s Galvanize launched a $1.3B credit and capital fund to finance decarbonization projects too complicated for most investors to touch.
Big-picture infrastructure bets — GEAPP (Global Energy Alliance for People & Planet) unveiled a $7.5B plan for grids, storage, and distributed renewables in developing countries, backed by Bezos Earth Fund, Rockefeller, IKEA, and multilateral development banks (MDBs).
Investing in Brazil — The Brazil Climate Summit highlighted opportunities across sustainable agriculture, reforestation, and remediation.
Meanwhile, Brazil pledged an initial $1B to the Tropical Forests Forever Facility (TFFF), a fund aspiring to attract:
$25B in first-loss capital from countries that will receive annual payouts based on how much tropical forest they leave intact
$100B in capital from institutions (PIMCO, Bank of America, and Barclays have signaled support) that won’t receive payouts, but whose investments can grow
Global Development
Resilience and Sustainability are “Stronger Together”
UNGA, of course, is broader than the climate issue. Representatives remind us that climate and development finance are two sides of the same global coin.
Integration saves money — Tackling climate and development crises together could cut costs by 40%, according to the UN.
Voices from the frontlines — Kenya and small island states pressed for stronger adaptation pledges to support survival and resilience.
Health as a lens for capital — The SDG Pavilion hosted the Accelerating Global Health Impact event, tying ecosystem building and health equity directly to financing.
Policy signals investors can use — The UNGA’s September resolution called for raising the private-finance mobilization ratio by 2030—an explicit invitation for impact investors to align their funds with UN priorities.
Adaptation in the spotlight — Climate Week’s Resilience Day reinforced the importance of financing adaptation, particularly for low-income and climate-vulnerable countries.
Actions Speak Louder Than Commitments
The world is weary of “commitments” that never materialize.
Though the SDGs conversation at UNGA was largely a reaffirmation of the UN’s Sevilla Commitment from June, the clear message from leaders was that actions, not promises, are what matter.
Brazil’s President Lula drove the point home, saying, “Brazil is going to host COP30 in 2025 and is convinced that multilateralism is the only way to overcome the climate emergency.”
A couple moves echoing this sentiment this week are:
The “Build Clean Now” campaign — Mission Possible Partnership announced this push for 50+ industrial decarbonization projects to reach a final investment decision by 2025–26.
ISO × GHG Protocol harmonization — The International Organization for Standardization and the Greenhouse Gas Protocol announced a partnership to align carbon-accounting standards and help investors who benefit from consistency in emissions reporting.
There remain many reasons—short-term and long-term, moral and practical—for companies and investors to keep pursuing sustainability.
That’s why the theme of “actions, not words” is reflected by companies in the current political climate. Many are maintaining or accelerating climate targets, while keeping quiet about them to duck political headwinds.
Conclusion & Takeaways
Climate Week NYC and UNGA 2025 show that momentum for sustainability is, in many ways, stronger than it’s ever been.
It’s a mighty river that flows forward in spite of the US federal government and its cohorts around the world who push against the current. Even if you dam the river, with the reality of today’s world, its force will build until it spills over.
In other words, down let short-term confusion cloud the long-term picture.
For impact investors, this has been a chance to discern new opportunities, using the actions and signals from this week to form deals, partnerships, and long-term agendas.
The stage is now set for COP30 in Belém, Brazil.
References and Recommended Reading
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“Brazil to Invest $1 Billion in Global Forest Fund.” Reuters, 23 Sept. 2025, https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/cop/brazil-invest-1-billion-global-forest-fund-sources-say-2025-09-23/.
Brookings Institution. “What’s at Stake at UNGA 2025?” Brookings, 2025, https://www.brookings.edu/articles/whats-at-stake-at-unga-2025/.
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