Climate Week opens Sunday with events New Yorkers can actually walk into

Climate Week gets underway in New York City on Sunday. It is the biggest event of its type in the world, and it lands in the same week that world leaders and hundreds of interest groups fill Midtown for the general debate at the United Nations General Assembly.

The week arrives while the federal government unwinds environmental and climate policy, air pollution standards for cars and power plants among them. A great deal of the programming speaks to advocates, policymakers, experts and industry leaders, and plenty of it does not: art shows, nature hikes, writing workshops and beginner seminars on topics such as energy.

“During this Climate Week there’s a lot of emphasis on narrative and storytelling,” said Raya Salter of the Energy Justice Law and Policy Center, who urged New Yorkers to “dip their toe in” and join the conversations.

Climate Week NYC events open to the public

PlanetHAUS offers one way in, an immersive showcase of everyday sustainable consumer choices where visitors can sample products spanning food, fashion and beauty and carry some home.

Please Don’t Flush takes the theatrical route. The comedy drops its audience into a community board meeting the night before a vote on a proposed development along the water. Neighbors, plumbers and even the birds are convinced the project will push more floodwater into the community. It grew out of a partnership between the Waterfront Alliance and the city agency responsible for emergency management, and it doubles as a briefing on flood resources.

Another option heads to Staten Island for a tour of the Bluebelt, the largest stormwater system the city operates, spread across a third of the borough. Ponds, creeks and parks planted with native species have absorbed runoff there naturally for about 30 years.

Data centers and the city’s power supply

Advocacy groups and policymakers are using the week to put out a data center policy toolkit, with experts and organizers discussing how the facilities land on surrounding communities, plus interactive resources covering policy, pollution, water and electricity use.

“The data center issue is very front and center,” Salter said, pointing to the energy and water the facilities swallow and the upward pressure they put on utility bills.

Where the region’s electricity comes from gets its own sessions. The state’s grid operator expects demand to climb and generation to fall short, while fossil fuels still supply most of the city’s power despite the decarbonization push. At Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, a cooperative board game called Energetic has players building clean energy for New York City while juggling grid stability, elections, funding and the effects of climate change.