While the term “ESG” has become increasingly politicized, companies, policymakers and sustainability professionals have gathered in growing numbers at conferences dedicated to climate, sustainable finance, tech and decarbonization solutions in recent years.
Donald Trump’s reelection, buoyed by a Republican-led Congress, has put some corporations into retreat mode, as banks and financial institutions have fled climate alliances and companies continue to backtrack on DEI. The upcoming change in political direction has also shifted the tenor of some of the events.
Early agendas showed a growing focus on decarbonizing data centers — along with other hard-to-decarbonize sectors. Though figuring out how to accommodate AI’s data center energy demands still remains a high-priority, many events now also include sessions focused on how companies can navigate the current U.S. political environment.
Here are some of the notable ESG and sustainability conferences that are already on the schedule for 2025.
Top ESG and sustainability conferences in 2025
Cleantech Forum North America
Jan. 27-29
Paradise Point Resort & Spa
San Diego
Cleantech Forum North America brings together a max of 700 corporates, entrepreneurs and professional services, government, academic and nonprofit experts. The event focuses on what’s next in sustainable innovation, with U.S.-centered sessions on the agenda for 2025, as well as a heavy focus on decarbonizing areas and sectors including data centers, maritime, aviation and heavy duty fleets.
Cleantech’s speakers include CEOs from a number of clean tech and energy companies including sustainable aircraft manufacturer Natilus CEO Aleksey Matyushev, as well as representatives from a variety of institutions funding the transition.
Greenbiz25
Feb. 10-12
JW Marriott Desert Ridge
Phoenix
Greenbiz25 is for sustainable business professionals and leaders from all sectors and job functions, including CEOs, CFOs, COOs, CIOs, heads of legal, supply chain, human resources and investor relations. The conference, hosted by Trellis (formerly Greenbiz) includes experts from a variety of sectors focused on sharing sustainability strategies and insights for decarbonization, disclosure, nature and more.
2025’s keynote sessions will feature sustainability officers from Netflix, Whole Foods and Universal Music Group, as the private sector looks to share lessons learned from the evolution of sustainability issues and what opportunities lie ahead this year.
Here is a roundup of ESG Dive’s coverage from Greenbiz24.
Responsible Investment Forum: New York
March 4-5
Convene, 117 West 46th Street
New York
The Responsible Investment Forum brings together around 500 sustainable finance professionals and thought leaders for conversations on investment approaches to decarbonization and net-zero, as well as biodiversity and sustainable investing in North America. The two-day conference, hosted by business intelligence firm PEI Group, draws a crowd of institutional investors, fund managers and other industry experts.
2025’s forum will include a focus on how companies address sustainability issues in the future, given the changing political environment in the U.S. and North America broadly. Speakers include ESG principals and sustainable finance professionals from financial institutions including Bain & Company, KKR, Apollo Global Management, Ares Management and more.
Wall Street Green Summit
March 18-19
Cornell Club
New York
The 2025 Wall Street Green Summit will be the 24th annual event focused on the intersection of sustainable finance and technology hosted by climate activist Peter Fusaro. The 2025 agenda includes topics like AI, climate tech, carbon trading platforms, pricing climate risk into markets and “harmonizing” ESG standards.
The two-day conference will include sessions on ESG investing, meeting rising energy demands. Confirmed speakers include Marsh McLennan Senior Director of Sustainability Shea Jameel and distributed energy platform GridMarket’s CEO Nick Davis.
EarthX2025
April 21-25
Hilton Anatole
Dallas
The EarthX2025 Congress of Conferences will bring together business professionals, environmentalists, leading climate scientists and federal agency and government leaders for an environmental solutions-focused conference. The conference is also typically attended by conservationists, academics, advocates, non-governmental organizations and policymakers in the environmental sector.
The agenda and speaker list for the event have not yet been announced.
2025 ESG Summit
April 24-25
Westin New York at Times Square
New York
The Conference Board’s 2025 ESG Summit will look to explore the evolving role of the private sector in environmental action, with a focus on “humanizing” environmental issues. Business leaders like CEOs and COOs, will gather with corporate sustainability officers, legal officers and general counsel and HR professionals, as well as tech innovators and government affairs professionals.
The two-day conference will include sessions about increasing corporate transparency and accountability, as well as navigating changing investor demands.
DC Climate Week
April 28-May 2
Washington, D.C.
The nation’s capital will host its first-ever climate week in 2025, as it looks to attract climate experts, organizations and other sector leaders to Washington, D.C. The five-day climate event will focus on climate innovation and sustainable solutions, though further details have not yet been announced.
The organizers hope the event “will establish Washington, D.C. as the epicenter of climate innovation,” and will look to bring experts, policymakers and investors together, according to the event’s website.
Sustainability Week US
June 11-12
Convene New York and New York Yacht Club
New York
The Economist will host a two-day Sustainability Week in New York to bring together businesses, policymakers and government; past attendees have included C-suite executives including CEOs and CFOs, as well as chief sustainability and procurement or product officers. The 2025 event will include an Energy Transition Summit, consisting of 50 one-on-one meetings with the organization’s “Energy Leaders Club.”
The event’s agenda includes a day of invite-only sessions with the top 50 energy executives and top 80 chief sustainability officers to discuss challenges on how to navigate the U.S. energy transition and global supply chain demands, respectively. Sessions the following day will also explore the clean energy transition, as well as aligning sustainability rules, using nuclear for AI, and more.
Sustainability Research and Innovation Congress
June 16-20
Sheraton Grand Chicago Riverwalk
Chicago and online
2025 will mark the first time the Sustainability Research and Innovation Congress will be held in the United States, after the prior four were held in Australia, South Africa, Panama and Finland. Past congresses have each drawn around 2,000 attendees from over 100 countries, representing global industries, governments and government agencies, civil and Indigenous organizations, as well as climate researchers and entrepreneurs. The inclusive sustainability focused conference is a hybrid event, with virtual and satellite sessions planned. One of the satellite conferences will take place in Nairobi, Kenya from June 4-6 and will also be streamed online.
The agenda has yet to be finalized, but SRI Congress said the event will include a focus on sharing implementation best practices for how to deal with global sustainability issues.
Responsible Business USA 2025
June 23-24
New York
Responsible Business USA 2025, hosted by Reuters, will gather CEOs, senior sustainability, legal, communications and finance executives in sessions on interpreting the changing regulatory landscape and policy impacts; implementing sustainability goals; innovating through AI and new forms of clean energy; and using sustainability data to tell a compelling narrative and inspire action.
This year’s speakers include sustainability officers from Allstate, Danone USA and Warner Music Group, as well as Ceres CEO Mindy Lubber and former White House Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy. Keynotes will focus on how to navigate the federal leadership change in the U.S., along with the intersection of AI and sustainability, and more.
Here is a roundup of ESG Dive’s coverage from Responsible Business USA 2024.
Climate Week NYC
Sept. 21-28
New York
Climate Week NYC 2025 will officially run from Sept. 21-28, as the annual weeklong event will again coincide with the beginning of high-level debates at the annual United Nations General Assembly meeting — set to begin Sept. 23, 2025. The New York City-based event comprised over 600 events across Manhattan’s five boroughs last year, bringing together high-level global policymakers, businesses and civil society sector professionals focused on the climate sector.
The theme and agenda have yet to be announced. Here is a round-up of ESG Dive’s coverage of Climate Week NYC 2024.
UN 2025 Climate Change Conference (COP30)
Nov. 10-21
Belém, Brazil
The United Nations’ annual climate change conference is set to take place in Brazil in 2025, with COP30 serving as the annual venue for global policymakers to determine the next steps for how their countries will handle climate change and the energy transition. Global negotiators approved articles focused on creating a global carbon market at COP29 in Azerbaijan, but ended with a finance deal that critics lambasted as a “failure.”
Global governments are expected to submit their updated Nationally Determined Contributions this year, and how they plan to meet those emissions reduction commitments will likely be a topic of conversation in November. However, the United States’ federal participation is uncertain, as Donald Trump has pledged to once again pull out of the Paris Agreement, and at least one country left COP29 after Trump won the U.S. presidential election.
Here’s ESG Dive’s rundown of COP29’s biggest news.
