Climate Week NYC's Fashion Summit

Climate Week NYC runs 20 to 27 September alongside the UN General Assembly. On 21 September, Columbia University hosts a fashion-industry summit on the energy, materials, markets and regulation reshaping the sector.

Climate Week NYC runs from 20 to 27 September 2026. It is organised by Climate Group, an international nonprofit that has convened business and government leaders on climate action for over two decades.

The event runs in coordination with the UN General Assembly, placing corporate and policy conversations in the same week as the UN's own climate diplomacy.

The Fashion Summit, in Brief

On 21 September, Columbia University hosts the Columbia Fashion, Energy, and Climate Summit, themed this year as “Fashion and the Climate Future.”

It is co-hosted by the Fashion, Energy and Climate Network at Columbia Climate School and the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs. Teachers College sponsors the summit.

Sessions are being led with partners including the Global Enabling Sustainability Initiative, NEC Labs, Twilio, Google and AT&T.

What's on the Agenda

The stated focus spans energy systems, materials, markets, finance, regulation, trade and culture, the full set of forces the organisers say are reshaping fashion.

The goal, as framed by the hosts, is a fashion system that is more resilient, more competitive, more circular and more climate-conscious, not any one of those on its own.

Running alongside it, Global Fashion Agenda is holding its third annual Policy Master Class during Climate Week NYC, focused on how brands build supply chain resilience as regulation and politics keep shifting.

GFA's wider Climate Week programme also includes a decision-maker breakfast and roundtables, an Innovation Gallery of pitch sessions, a Fashion Leaders Dinner co-hosted with Belvedere 10, and a Power Walk through Central Park.

Who's in the Room

Confirmed contributors include Sally Qiu, co-director of the Fashion, Energy and Climate Network at Columbia Climate School; Indré Rockefeller, founder of the Circularity Project; Trevor Sutton, who directs Columbia's Program on Trade and the Clean Energy Transition; and Kristina Elinder Liljas of the Apparel Impact Institute.

Organisers note that the full programme and speaker list were still being finalised as the week approached.

Why It's on the Agenda Now

Fashion accounts for an estimated 2 to 8 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and roughly a fifth of industrial wastewater pollution worldwide, the scale that puts it inside the climate and energy conversation rather than beside it.

That framing, energy and materials as fashion's climate challenge rather than a side issue, is what separates this summit from a typical industry trade event.

Key Takeaways

1. This is a research and policy summit, not a trade show. Expect frameworks and data, not product launches.
2. Regulation has its own agenda item here, through GFA's policy masterclass running the same week.
3. Fashion is sharing a stage with UN General Assembly week, not sitting apart from it.
4. The organisations and speakers in the room now are a reasonable early signal of who shapes the next round of industry rules.