New York Climate Week 2025 – Power through the skepticism 

The theme for this year’s Climate Week was ‘Power on’ to drive progress in clean energy and climate financing to technology and more jobs. However, I think a more fitting description would have been ‘Power through’.  

Why? “Power on” is timely but “Power through” is in my opinion more fitting in today’s political and geopolitical environment. We need investments in clean technology, and we need climate financing, however the willingness in the western world is at a breaking point. Will we fall, or will we succeed? The courage needs to be found as China has in the background grown to become a world leader in renewable investments. This can be read about in any academic research published during this year. Why might you ask? To put it simply; it is financially the most sound way in the long-term.  

The theme throughout the Climate Week in New York was clear. Renewable energies and green technologies are commercially viable in several sectors, and the better option compared to traditional technologies from a lifecycle perspective. However, the initial investments are always more expensive, for example investing in wind parks compared to expanding or increasing capacity of coal fired power plants. This is bad from a financial and a sustainability point of view. In the future we will pay the price in money and in climate costs if we do not dare to make the initial investments in the better, greener options. In other words, favor the long-term option even in more uncertain times, like the ones we are in now, it will pay off in the future. 

My focus during the trip was to take the temperature (pun intended) on how American investors and companies view climate and sustainability. In the networking sessions, several Nordic investors were also present. Nordic and American investors generally agree that climate action remains a priority. However, it’s worth noting that their views may be somewhat biased—they’re attending Climate Week, which suggests they already believe in the urgency of the issue. This is already a victory, especially in the light of President Trumps speech at the 2025 UN General Assembly, held simultaneously in New York, where he dismissed climate change as the greatest ‘con job’ ever perpetrated on the world. 

Several keynote speeches, such as NVIDIAs Head of Sustainability talking about AI and Datacenters, as well as the company’s other representatives talking about their Earth-2 platform on Climate change modeling, highlight how important it is to seize the opportunities in climate change while aiming to mitigate it. Although AI will require huge amounts of energy, AI will also assist in making our energy grids more effective, assist in producing better predicting climate models and assist industry sectors in better efficiency. The holistic perspective on rapid AI developments is essential. Physical climate change and the massive damage it has caused, especially in the US, was also high on the agenda during the days Just the wildfires in California earlier this year caused several deaths and between 95-164 billion dollars in property damage and capital losses, a terrifying result of what physical hazardous climate related events can have. Physical climate change is an expensive risk to take if you do not implement proper precautions and protection. Flooding, draught, tornados, and other physical events are increasing massively compared to 20 years ago. Building infrastructure certified for protection against environment has never been this important. It is essential to take physical location into the assessment of any company invested in, including the location of their critical supply chains. The worst-case scenario is that if a facility producing specific components in an area where there is a high risk of physical climate events is destroyed, it might stop some sectors for several weeks until replacement production is established. 

One of the highlights of the trip was the dinner reception at the Finnish Consulates private residence, hosted by Consul General Jarmo Sareva. The event focused on the Nordic collaboration between companies, and it was an honor to partake in the discussions on how we in this geopolitically unstable time can show the strengths of a stable Nordic region. The event presented several successful ways of how a strong bond in the Nordic region can assist growth companies in achieving broader audiences and further impact, compared to if acting alone. As a representative of a small Finnish boutique asset manager, I could not agree more. 

Overall, the trip was inspiring. New York is a special place where every person on the street is walking with a purpose and passion for their careers, an energy which we would need in Finland to get our economy back on its feet. Climate and sustainability are not something we should consider separately; it’s something that should be an organic part of any companies’ operations or of our daily lives. It should always be an obvious topic to consider, especially now that it has matured into its current state. The ‘sustainability hype’ of 2021-2022 is over and now sustainability has taken its place along with other things that are considered Business as Usual. Even if we see the current US administration trying to tear apart the IRA we see more investments in greener technology and stocks within with the green transition sector recovering all over the world. It’s not only because it’s sustainable, but because it’s also financially sustainable in the long term.  

Erik Wikström, Head of ESG