Penn IUR Engages Global Partners on Climate Finance and Resilience During Climate Week NYC

From flood recovery in Brazil to global clean energy investments, discover how Penn IUR connected research and policy during Climate Week NYC to turn climate risks into actionable investment strategies.

Penn IUR played an active role during Climate Week NYC, convening discussions on climate finance, resilience, investment, and governance with researchers, policymakers, city and state officials, international organizations, financial institutions, and private-sector leaders. As Secretariat to the SDSN Global Commission for Urban SDG Finance, Penn IUR held the Commission’s third Fall plenary meeting on September 22, where members assessed how the Commission can respond to a rapidly changing global context for urban sustainable development finance. 

The SDSN Global Commission discussion highlighted the challenges of growing fragmentation in the international system and tighter climate finance conditions, focusing on ways to strengthen resilience and address physical climate risks, mobilize greater private investment, and provide regionally differentiated approaches. Multilevel governance and domestic financial systems emerged as a key priority for cities, while commissioners raised questions of how development banks, insurers, and private capital can continue to increase urban investment. 

These themes continued through Penn IUR’s broader Climate Week programming. Highlights include: 

On September 22, Penn IUR, NYU’s Center for International Cooperation, and CoalizãoRS convened Building Resilience Together: Partnerships for Climate Finance and Governance in Rio Grande do Sul, examining how innovative approaches to finance and governance are supporting the transition from disaster recovery to long-term resilience following unprecedented 2024 floods in southern Brazil. 

Later that day, Penn IUR joined Penn partners for The New Investment Map: Competitiveness, Climate Resilience, and the Future of Clean Energy Investment, for a conversation with leaders from the clean energy sector, government, international organizations, academia, and private equity. 

On September 23, Penn IUR co-hosted a closed-door discussion on the trade and domestic revenue implications of the transition away from fossil fuels. Participants included global government representatives and seasoned climate policy experts who emphasized the importance of connecting ongoing negotiations under different international agreements to core just transition challenges such as misaligned national policy frameworks, macroeconomic financing, and transforming labor markets. 

On September 24, Penn IUR partnered with UNEP, the Government of Québec, and Penn Climate for Business Risks and Opportunities in a World Beyond 1.5, connecting scientific findings on climate overshoot with implications for business, investment, infrastructure, and financial resilience. The discussion stressed not the lack of capital flows but whether policy frameworks, investment pipelines, risk information, and price signals are adequate to direct capital toward resilient, low-carbon outcomes. 

Across these engagements, Penn IUR helped connect research and policy communities around a shared challenge: how to translate growing climate risks and changing economic conditions into practical approaches to investment, governance, and resilience.