The annual Climate Week NYC, set for Sept. 22-29, will get a Big Red tint as Cornell experts advance environmental food policy ideas, suggest carbon solutions for the travel industry, examine reducing agricultural methane and participate in a nuclear energy symposium.

“Cornell has science, business and technological proficiency to share with the world,” said Ben Furnas, executive director of the 2030 Project: A Cornell Climate Initiative, housed at the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability. He is helping to organize the university’s presence at Climate Week NYC, which coincides with United Nations General Assembly programming on the environment.

“It’s not just modeling or jotting down ideas or developing opinions,” Furnas said. “Cornell brings world-class expertise to create on-the-ground solutions to global problems.”

Cornell highlights include a panel on “System Level Challenges of Decarbonization” at the Nuclear Symposium 2024: Uplifting Humanity on Sept. 25. The panel features Lindsay Anderson, professor and chair of the Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering (College of Agriculture and Life Sciences) and Cornell Atkinson senior faculty fellow, who will present her expertise on electric grids and optimizing energy systems.

The panel will discuss the physical, monetary, environmental and social challenges to decarbonizing economies, and examine lessons from New York state’s climate policies and the state of Georgia’s nuclear energy experience.

Anderson will be joined on the panel by theoretical physicist Leonard Rodberg, Nuclear New York; Tricia Pridemore, commissioner, Georgia Public Service Commission; and panel moderator Alexander Kaufman, Huffington Post.

The symposium will be held at Cornell Tech in New York City. It is hosted by Cornell Atkinson, Nuclear New York and Generation Atomic.

In another symposium on Sept. 25, From Ambition to Action: Solutions for Lower-Methane Livestock, Mario Herrero, professor in global development, Cornell Atkinson scholar and senior faculty fellow; and Joseph McFadden, associate professor of animal science and Cornell Atkinson senior faculty fellow, both in CALS, will discuss reducing methane emissions in animal agriculture.

This symposium will be held at Cornell’s ILR School NYC Conference Center, 570 Lexington Ave., 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. It is hosted by Cornell Atkinson, the Environmental Defense Fund and Global Methane Hub.

Cornell’s Center for Hospitality Research and the Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise will host 2024 Sustainability in Travel, Tourism and Hospitality, a series of climate-focused roundtables on Sept. 23-24, also at the ILR School NYC Conference Center.

Sept. 23

• Session 1: “Are We Building for the Past or Future? Green Financing in Hotel Development and Investment,” 10-11 a.m.

• Session 2: “How Can the Travel and Tourism Industry Catalyze a More Sustainable and Resilient Food and Beverage Supply Chain?” noon to 1 p.m.

• Session 3: “Climate Action Needs to Drive Destination Planning: Why Isn’t It?” 3-4 p.m.

Sept. 24

• Session 4: “Creating Positive Feedback Loops: How Can Travel Business Models Accelerate Nature-Based Finance and Solutions?” 10-11 a.m.

• Session 5: “Step Up to Meet the Moment: Driving the Generational Change in Training and Education in a Climate-Constrained World,” noon to 1 p.m.

• Session 6: “From Ideas to Action: Future Directions in Sustainable Travel, Tourism and Hospitality,” 3-4 p.m.

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Other Cornell sessions at Climate Week NYC include:

Sept. 24

• “Coffee as a Force for Good: Lessons from Supply Chain Initiatives for Carbon and Biodiversity” – 10:10-10:30 a.m. The Nest Climate Campus, Main Stage, North Javits Center, 445 11th Ave. Viviana Ruiz Gutierrez, director of conservation science at Cornell’s Center for Avian Population Studies, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, will present her work on the Biodiversity Progress Index, a global metric developed with the Institute for Computational Sustainability at Cornell.

• “The Climate Crisis and Cities: The Role of Regional Food Policy” – an online symposium, 11:45 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. Becca Jablonski, visiting associate professor in the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management (SC Johnson), will participate on the online panel “The Research Policy Integration/Feedback Loop,” which features Milagros de Haz, deputy director of strategy and food policy for the Office of the Mayor of New York City.

Sept. 25

• “Moving Beyond Polarization on Climate Interventions,” 10 a.m. to noon, TIAA Building, 730 Third Ave. Daniele Visioni, assistant professor of earth and atmospheric sciences (CALS) and Cornell Atkinson faculty fellow, will be among experts to discuss climate intervention governance and solar radiation modification. The session is co-hosted by the Alliance for Just Deliberation on Solar Geoengineering and the International Center for Future Generations.

• “Leadership Panel: Leveraging Natural Climate Solutions for Net Zero” 3-5 p.m., ILR School, NYC Conference Center (Seminar B), 570 Lexington Ave. Led by Andrew Karolyi, the Charles Field Knight Dean of the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business; and Sarah Wolfolds, assistant professor in the Dyson (SC Johnson), both Cornell Atkinson Faculty Fellows. Cornell alumni will join a roundtable on natural climate solutions, the voluntary carbon market and corporate net-zero strategies. Hosted by Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.

• “Pastures of Plenty: Sustainable Livestock Solutions for Climate, Nature and People,” 3-6 p.m., Pritchett Conference Room (5th Floor), TIAA Building, 730 Third Ave. Herrero will be among several experts discussing livestock production impact on the Earth’s land, water and climate. Hosted by Climate and Clean Air Coalition, CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security, International Livestock Research Institute and ALive4Climate Alliance.

Sept. 26 

• “Indonesia: Celebrating a Decade of Reduced Deforestation, and to Achieving FOLU Net Sink 2030, in the World’s Third-Largest Rainforest,” 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., ILR School, NYC Conference Center, Room 1234, 570 Lexington Ave. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, World Resources Institute, and International Union for the Conservation of Nature will host a full day of discussion on how the international community can help attain forestry and other land uses (FOLU). Wendy Erb, postdoctoral fellow, Lab of Ornithology, and Ed Scholes, project leader, Birds-of-Paradise Project, Lab of Ornithoogy, will participate on the panels.

Sept. 28

• “Remember Ida,” a podcast listening session, 3-6 p.m., 309 Clayton Road, Governor’s Island. Recalling the third anniversary of Hurricane Ida in New York City. Hannah Eisler Burnett, Jamaica Bay coastal resilience specialist with Cornell’s New York Sea Grant, discusses urban flooding.