ANNUAL
REPORT
2025
LETTER FROM THE BOARD CHAIR
I am thrilled to share the 2025 Annual Report from The New York Climate Exchange. Thanks to the extraordinary efforts of our staff and steadfast support and guidance from our incredible partners, The Exchange has made significant advancements toward its mission.
A primary focus this year has been launching flagship programs that demonstrate The Exchange’s distinct value proposition: unlocking solutions to mitigate climate change at speed and scale. We are proud to reflect on our achievements to date.
Governors Island, the future site of our state-of-the-art climate campus, is already a central convening space for Exchange events and programming. During Earth Week in April, we hosted an inaugural Climate Solutions Summit, which brought together scientists, community leaders, policymakers, artists, and innovators to address climate resilience in coastal urban environments.
Over the summer, we hosted our second cohort of college interns on the island and students from New York City Public Schools at the Youth Climate Summit. During Climate Week NYC, The Exchange engaged more than 2,300 people across 30 events. This year’s events reminded us that our world is built for a climate that no longer exists. More hopefully, however, they demonstrated that cities and collaborative action are leading the way toward a path to climate resilience.
The New York Climate Exchange network continued to drive the conversation on climate leadership on the ground in Brazil for COP30.
Building on these achievements, we are working closely with our academic, corporate, and community partners, along with sector experts, to assess where The Exchange can add the greatest value in 2026—ensuring we become recognized as a go-to resource on climate data, climate finance, and urban resilience.
There is remarkable excitement surrounding the living laboratory we’re creating to implement sustainable solutions with multi-sector partners for New York City and cities around the world. We continue to advance our campus construction plans and are excited to share our latest renderings throughout this report.
None of these achievements would be possible without our generous donors and supporters.
As we look toward the year ahead and beyond, we are thrilled to continue building on this momentum, thanks to your unwavering support.
With gratitude,
Andrea Goldsmith
Chair of the Board of Directors
ABOUT THE EXCHANGE
In April 2023, following a two-year competitive process led by the Trust for Governors Island and the City of New York, The New York Climate Exchange, anchored by Stony Brook University, was selected to create an innovation district on Governors Island to accelerate equitable climate solutions for cities.
By leveraging the perspectives of a cross-sector network of diverse partners and New York City’s global influence, The Exchange engages in cutting-edge research, delivers impactful education and training, hosts world-class convenings, and scales climate technology solutions.
The Exchange is developing a state-of-the-art climate campus on Governors Island that will bring climate scientists, educators, entrepreneurs, and change-makers under one roof – sparking the collaborations and breakthrough ideas we need to build a sustainable future.
Our Work
The climate crisis is a complex challenge that requires unprecedented collaboration.
Headed into 2026 and beyond, the work of the New York Climate Exchange will focus on three key areas:
Urban resilience is about protecting human health during heatwaves, keeping homes dry during floods, lowering insurance bills, and creating new, good-paying jobs that future-proof our workforce.
Alongside our incredible partners, we’re building tools, training leaders, and testing solutions that make communities stronger, safer, and more prepared for the effects of climate change.
The Climate Tech Fellowship, with the support of Foley Hoag, addresses a gap between innovations emerging from university labs and scalable climate solutions. Built in collaboration with innovation leads, tech transfer offices, and research labs across The Exchange’s 11 university partners, The Exchange ‘s Climate Tech Fellowship helps promising entrepreneurs start their early-stage commercialization journey. The inaugural cohort is comprised of eight fellows from six universities, developing innovations for grid resilience, hydrogen storage, coral restoration, and real-time wildfire and flood management, among other areas. From September 2025 to February 2026, fellows will participate in a tailored climate tech venture curriculum taught by industry experts, be matched with mentors for one-to-one support, and receive non-dilutive funding, piloting support, and access to New York City’s world-class climate tech ecosystem.
Meet our first cohort
Fares Al-Lahabi
Mauricio Hernandez
Xiao Liu
Charlie Mydlarz
Shannon Parker
Ty Roach
Patricia Stathatou
Stephanie Taboada
The Sustainable Solutions Challenge called for groundbreaking implementation-ready innovations that can be integrated into the new Climate Hub on Governors Island, scheduled to open in Fall 2029. Designed as a living laboratory for sustainability, this first-of-its-kind development showcases cutting-edge climate solutions and serves as a global model for resilient, low-carbon urban design. This Challenge was made possible with the support of AWS and Intel and the VELUX Group and our community of partners.
105
Applications
11
Countries Represented
34
Expert Reviewers
20
Finalists in 2 cohorts
Piloting Solutions on Governors Island
In partnership with The Exchange, Skanska, and the Trust for Governors Island, Prometheus Materials piloted the use of algae-based concrete on Governors Island as part of the Sustainable Solutions Challenge. Because traditional concrete is among the most carbon-intensive building materials, Prometheus’s ProZERO™ technology has the potential to materially reduce emissions in New York City and other urban areas. If successful, this pilot could inform broader adoption and advance cleaner construction practices.
NYCHA Resident Climate Action Grants
The Exchange teamed up with The Public Housing Community Fund and the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) to present the third cohort of the Resident Climate Action Grant program. In April, during Earth Week 2025, 17 grant winners received funding for a range of climate solutions, including community garden expansions, education on composting and recycling, and green job training. These resident-led projects stand to benefit 40,000 public housing residents across five boroughs. The finalists’ projects were announced at a workshop on Governors Island during Earth Week and celebrated at Brooklyn Botanic Garden during Climate Week NYC. The Resident Climate Action Grants Program is generously supported by Rise Light and Power.
Green Skills Summit
The New York Climate Exchange hosted a Green Skills Summit in partnership with the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation, and sponsored by Con Edison. The event brought together a powerful mix of educators, training providers, labor leaders, employers, and policymakers to explore the skills and partnerships needed to meet the city’s decarb-onization and resiliency goals.
The Exchange launched The Climate Story Project at Climate Week NYC 2025. With support from Wellcome Trust, the project shares diverse personal stories about how climate change affects human health. Through a growing digital archive, live events, and in-person workshops, the project harnesses the power of storytelling to make climate science accessible and actionable. The initiative brings together partner organizations, including WE ACT, NYU, and Billion Oyster Project to ensure authentic community voices are heard and amplified.
The Exchange’s Project Closed Circuit put cities at the center of electric vehicle (EV) battery circularity. Successfully completed in 2025, this project engaged city leaders, fleet operators, waste managers, insurers, and other stake-holders, and examined options for secondary and tertiary uses as well as recycling, to build a circular economy for batteries. The Exchange convened practitioners to share best practices and develop scalable battery solutions across sectors. The project culminated in the report “An Introduction to Battery Circularity,” which provided urban strategies for advancing a circular economy for electric batteries.
The Exchange is working to create the world’s leading hub for information, policy guidance, capacity building, and innovation in developing financing strategies and instruments to significan-tly scale investment in climate action. Through initiatives and events through-out the year, like London Climate Action Week, the Exchange convened partners to discuss and advance climate finance across sectors.
The Wall Street Climate Forum for Young Professionals was a successful year-long initiative that broadened awareness of the linkages between climate change and the financial sector. Across a series of six educational and networking events, more than 500 financial professionals had the opportunity to engage with thought leaders in climate policy and climate finance. Events covered building decarbonization, renewable infrastructure investment, and carbon markets. The Wall Street Climate Forum was made possible with the generous support of HSBC.
Good data is foundational to delivering transformative climate solutions. The New York Climate Exchange preserves and unlocks access to climate data, so it is more useful across sectors – strengthening economies, improving public health and disaster preparedness, and fostering innovation.
As extreme weather events grow more frequent and intense, communities, businesses, and planners struggle to access and apply data to local resilience efforts. Local efforts exists to bridge data gaps, including efforts among partners of the Exchange, such as FloodNet (City College, Brooklyn College, NYU) and the Coastal Equity and Resilience Hub (Georgia Tech).
The Exchange’s location on Governors Island will leverage New York City’s longstanding status as a global hub of information and ideas to drive climate action and engagement.
Climate Data Conversation
Climate and environmental data are foundational to how we understand and respond to a rapidly changing world. These data support everything from resilient infrastructure and public health to agricultural planning, energy forecasting, and climate innovation. During Climate Week NYC, The Exchange convened experts in climate science, data infrastructure, public-sector innovation, disaster preparedness, and information integrity to facilitate a collaborative discussion to guide program strategies for The Exchange and how it connects to other related climate data efforts.
Working with an international network of research partners and government entities, Governors Island is an ideal location to create a state-of-the-art environmental observatory. This facility, which launched in September 2025 with the generous support of the University of Helsinki, will document in real-time connections between energy use, air and water pollution, climate impacts, and threats to human health and biodiversity in a dense urban environment. Sensors and equipment will continue to expand as The Exchange constructs its climate campus.
The Exchange’s campus aims to build on what New Yorkers love about Governors Island while welcoming them to research, learn, and experience climate solutions that will enable NYC and other urban communities to thrive.
The project envisions a public-facing space dedicated to research, education, and climate innovation, surrounded by four acres of newly created open space. Scheduled to break ground in late 2026, the first phase of construction encompasses 250,000 sq. ft of collaborative space, made up of two new mass timber buildings and renovation of a portion of historic Liggett Hall.
KEY EVENTS
Mālama I Ke Kai: Ocean Care
The Exchange kicked off Earth Month by teaming up with The Climate Museum and Metropolitan Opera to present an ocean-inspired musical performance and discussion. Featuring Billion Oyster Project and Bloomberg Philanthropies, the event, held at the Perelman Performing Arts Center, explored humanity’s relationship with the ocean across cultures and how that relationship can be repaired.
Climate Solutions Summit NYC
The Climate Solutions Summit on Governors Island was organized in partnership with the New York Panel on Climate Change (NPCC) and the Urban Climate Change Research Network (UCCRN). This event convened scientists, community leaders, policymakers, artists, and innovators to address one of the most pressing challenges of our time: building climate resilience in coastal urban environments. Sessions included members of the NPCC presenting their fourth report, a poster session showcasing student research, and sessions on leveraging robust climate data for better solutions. Speakers included Laurian Farrell, from the NYC Department of Environmental Protection, and Pratt Institute’s David Erdman.
Youth Climate Action Summit
At the 2025 Youth Climate Action Summit, NYC Public Schools brought together hundreds of students for informative sessions on Governors Island. The New York Climate Exchange hosted a panel for interactive conversations with climate experts—from data scientists to environmental justice advocates—students explored real-world solutions, tested water quality, and discovered pathways to meaningful, sustainable careers.
United Nations Oceans Conference (UNOC)
Exchange staff traveled to Nice, France, for the UN Oceans Conference, alongside partners from Stony Brook University, Duke University, the American Geophysical Union, the Waterfront Alliance, and CUNY. During the conference The Exchange joined Stony Brook in presenting a new whitepaper, United Seas for Resilient Reefs: A Blueprint for Coral Conservation Through International Cooperation.
Design Exchange Events Series: Mass Timber, Urban Heat, and Extreme Weather
The Exchange hosted three Design Exchange events in 2025. These events, organized with the Municipal Art Society of New York, featured action-focused panels and networking opportunities at Skanska, Pratt Institute, and AECOM. The series examined the link between climate change and our health and safety. Unprecedented collaboration between health professionals, urban designers, developers, and more is needed to scale innovative solutions, including the use of new materials, low-carbon transit, cool buildings, and tree canopy expansion to improve air quality and mitigate the urban heat island effect.
For the second year in a row, Climate Week NYC was a huge success. The Exchange hosted or co-hosted 30 events, on and off Governors Island, that reached more than 2,300 people. Key events including the Climate Tech Showcase, Sustainable Solutions Challenge Showcase, and the launch of a climate data monitoring trailer (GIEO), demonstrated The Exchange’s unique ability to convene diverse partners on Governors Island.
BY THE NUMBERS
30
40
2300+
1500+
Events
Partners Engaged
Attendees
New Email Subscribers
Our expertise and updates were featured across major media outlets this year, helping us inspire action and share our mission.
Take a sneak peek at $700 million Governors Island climate hub
Crain’s New York Business – February 19, 2025
Make a Green City Family Affordable
New York Daily News, April 16, 2025
New York Climate Exchange Explains Climate Impacts
NY1 – April 20, 2025
Governors Island to host New York Climate Exchange campus
NY1 – September 20, 2025
NY Climate Exchange CEO Stephen Hammer on Climate Innovation
Bloomberg News – September 24, 2025
In 2025, The Exchange gained:
3.7K
133K
47K
44%
new social media followers
website page views
website users
increase in news-letter subscribers
THE PARTNERS
Stony Brook University is The Exchange’s anchor institution.
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"Our collaboration with The New York Climate Exchange has helped us to connect with other organizations to foster meaningful discussions and innovative solutions."
Furhana Husani
Director of Programs & Climate Initiatives
Waterfront Alliance -
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“This is the perfect project of bringing us all together, and meeting colleagues in completely different disciplines. The goal is to have this network that's much, much broader than ourselves.”
Frances Bronet
President
Pratt Institute -
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“Together, we can bridge local action and global impact, accelerating solutions that are equitable, scalable, and rooted in place-based knowledge.”
Rachel Berney
Director of Urban@UW
University of Washington
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“We're here because we truly believe that putting our competencies, our knowledge at the service of the city of New York and beyond we can make a dent in the climate crisis.”
Giovanni Fassio
Principal
Boston Consulting Group -
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"We are excited to be a core partner of The Exchange and collaborate on activities ranging from climate tech commercialization and climate finance to coastal resilience and youth education."
L. Beril Toktay
Executive Director, Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems,
Faculty Director, Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business
Georgia Institute of Technology
THANK YOU TO OUR FOUNDING PARTNERS!
The New York Climate Exchange is grateful to our founding partners:
The Simons Foundation
The Simons Foundation International
Bloomberg Philanthropies
Robert K Johnson Foundation
The Glenn and Eva Dubin Family Foundation
and to the City of New York and The Trust for Governors Island for their bold vision and leadership.