NAMClimate Week Countdown 2025

NAM Countdown to Climate Week 2025

Background

Leading into Climate Group’s Climate Week NYC 2025, the NAM Climate Grand Challenge hosted its second Countdown to Climate Week virtual convening on September 11, 2025. This invitation-only roundtable brought together organizations hosting climate and health sessions during Climate Week.

Participants shared desired outcomes for their sessions and the week, aligned on consistent communication around the importance and urgency of centering climate and health, and developed shared strategies to leverage the week’s events to identify creative partnerships and solutions. This year’s convening featured rich discussions on themes such as driving innovation, storytelling for resilience, and the role of health systems as anchors of climate response and community well-being.

The NAM hopes this open exchange and the subsequent public-facing highlights below help elevate Climate Week’s health-focused opportunities, and continue to signal that health belongs at the top of the global climate agenda.

Check out key quotes from the roundtable and browse the calendar below to follow health-focused events and ideas during Climate Week.

Highlighted Health-Focused Events at Climate Week NYC 2025

This list includes health-related events taking place during Climate Week NYC 2025 that have been submitted to the NAM or identified online. For specific event information and further details, please refer to the individual event listings. Please note that not all events are open to the public. If no link is provided, no further information is publicly available.

Nature Meets Finance: Turning Data Into Value

Waterfront Webinar: Eco-Anxiety—the Newest Climate Hazard

Healthier People, Planet and Margins: Food’s Next Frontier

A Workforce Resilience Lab: Protecting Your People When Disasters Strike

Building Resilient Solutions for Global Food Security

Empowering the Health Care Workforce for a Climate-Resilient Future

Unwind for the Earth - An Evening of Relaxed Conversation

Science & Society: Heat Advisory

Climate, Health and the Bottom Line – Rethinking Risk in a Warming World

Our Most Natural Lever – Are We Ready for a Regenerative World?

Wednesday, 9/24

Beyond Barriers: Health Care Solutions for Plastics & Waste

The Power of Investing in Locally-Led Climate and Health Solutions

Bold Supply Chain Transparency: Nature & Food

The Economic and Health Imperatives for Climate Action

Reducing Food Waste for a Sustainable Food System and Improved Margins

Reimagining Our Schoolyards

Renewed Investment for Maximum Impact

Months to Hours: Permitting for Government & Citizens

★ NAM's Catalyzing Climate and Health Research Impact and Application

Helping Youth Navigate Climate x Health Challenges

Climate Solutions that Are Not Boring

Thursday, 9/25

Health Systems Implementing Climate Action

Boardroom Ready: Climate and Nature as a Performance Strategy

Nourishing People, Planet, and our Future

Rooted and Ready: Planning and Designing the Next Generation of Resilience Hubs

Building Community for Climate Justice: A Multisolving Moment

What's 'Normal'? Mental Health Liberation for Climate Activists

Youth Climate Forum: Envisioning a Fossil Fuel Free World

Resilient Cities, Reimagining Health: Making the Case for Prevention

Healthcare Leaders Roundtable: Investing in Carbon Removals to Unlock Health Equity & Business Growth

Climate Assembly

Climate Resilience in Action

Friday, 9/26

Climate Health Conversations

Heat Adaptation for Vulnerable Populations

Climate Education in Action

Urgency and Taking Action Now

“Last year, through all our collective work, we were able to see the inclusion of a new pathway during Climate Week, focused on climate and health. Now it has become a mainstay in the agenda. Health puts the human story to climate. We know how critical progress is. We want to keep going… and we must do so together. We look at you as partners in working on the same purpose, which is how to improve health, by addressing climate change.”

Victor Dzau (National Academy of Medicine)

“Through a radical vision of cooperation and resource sharing, we can collectively meet urgent data needs at the nexus of climate and health. This includes identifying what stakeholders need to move health-centered climate solutions forward and then harnessing existing data sources while also building the railway tracks that get us to where we need to go. We look forward to moving towards shared, solution-oriented action with all of you together.“

Renee Salas (The Cooperative, Lancet Countdown U.S. Brief Working Group)

Health Systems as Backbone of Climate and Health

“What I’m really trying to do in my classroom is make this real. Not just talk about theory but connect this to the work that you’re doing. And a big theme of that has been that the health sector and health systems are the backbone of the climate and health movement. And there’s two reasons for that. One is, human society has made lots of progress. We want to keep moving forward, and a crowning gem of our progress is our health systems. We can do and deliver care in ways that our grandparents never would have expected to be possible just a few generations ago. No one wants to backslide on the progress we’ve made, but we also have to contend with the shadow of health care and its environmental footprint. And if we can figure this out, we stand up as the leaders in this climate and health movement, that if the health sector can do this, so can other aspects of society.”

Chris Lemon (Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Planetary Health Alliance)

“Don’t overuse jargon and try to frame this work in simple terms that relate to people’s lives. We all want health care to be there when we need it. We all want clean air and water, good food and health. There are ways to frame this around economic security. Those are themes that resonate more than using some of the more complex framing that we often do in health care. Let’s keep that messaging focused on what matters and that becomes a strength that we can leverage.”

Ann Kurth (New York Academy of Medicine)

“What we’re really hoping is to gain cross-sector collaboration, really inspire folks to think about training their workforce. And in the spirit of continuing to move to action, how can we use quality and safety functions to really help supercharge this work?”

Komal Bajaj (NYC Health + Hospitals/Jacobi/NCB)

Mental Health and Community Resilience

“When we develop emotional intelligence skills–to have more resilience, to have skills for dealing with challenges–those inner skills ripple outwards into our relationships and communities, which in turn can lead to systemic change. If we can connect the dots together between public health, climate health, and mental health, so that these solutions can be more mainstream–and reach the media, policymakers, and funders–because facts and data alone do not move people. It is emotions and stories that do.”

Patty Freedman (Six Seconds)

“How do we humanize the stories of what is happening with climate change, so that when we talk about our emotions and our mental health and how this is making us feel, it personalizes it–it moves it from a theoretical, or an abstract concept, or someone else’s problem over there, or something that’s so complex–and allows people to connect in a very vulnerable and personal way. If we bring mental health into all aspects of the climate movement, this will strengthen not only our engagement, but our outcomes.”

Sarah Newman (Climate Mental Health Network)

Collaboration and Innovation

“How do we start to think about collaboration. At Climate Week, we have all these amazing people get together, and then, you go back to regular work. So, one of the things we’ll be pulling together is, what are your aspirations, what are your needs, and what else do other people have that they can provide? Post the session and the conversation, we’ll try to do a little bit of matchmaking around resources.”

Elizabeth Baca (Deloitte)

“What I’ve enjoyed the most from attending multiple Climate Weeks has not only been supporting our amazing community of health professionals that are showing up and putting on events, but also stepping out of my comfort zone, going to events that are not health-related events, and bringing this lens and this voice. This is a key opportunity to lend your voice to places where it is not currently.”

Seema Wadhwa (Net Positive Solutions)

Disclaimer: Statements in this product do not necessarily reflect the views of all members of the NAM or the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (National Academies). This product is intended to help inform and stimulate discussion. It is not a report of the NAM or the National Academies. Copyright by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.  