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Find Planetary Health at New York Climate Week 2026
At NYCW 2026, the Planetary Health community will highlight how a changing climate is disrupting the foundations of human health and wellbeing, while spotlighting opportunities to create a livable future for all.
From 20-27 September, the Planetary Health Alliance team and community members will attend New York Climate Week to spotlight the health impacts of a changing planetary system and opportunities to safeguard a livable future for all people and all Nature for generations to come.
To add your Planetary Health NYCW event or invite our experts to your event, fill out this survey or email hannah.blair@jhu.edu
Monday, September 21
Planetary Health and the Anthropocene: A Live Screening & Q&A for Classrooms
Date: Monday, 21 September 2026
Time: 10:30 AM–11:30 AM ET
Location: Zoom
From the food on our plates to the health of the whole planet, this live, classroom-friendly session explores Planetary Health through the story of modern agriculture. The Educated Choices Program, in partnership with the Planetary Health Alliance, opens with a short introduction, screens the 18-minute film Planetary Health: Agriculture and the Anthropocene, and closes with a live Q&A with our teams. Designed to fit a single class period, it connects climate, biodiversity, water, and human health to the everyday choices students make – and ends where Planetary Health does: on solutions and the power of every meal. Built for secondary and postsecondary classrooms; educators are welcome to tune in with their students.
Tuesday, September 22
Finding the Media Hooks: Demographics and Planetary Health
Date: Tuesday, 22 September 2026
Time: 8:00 AM–9:00 AM ET
Location: Zoom
The Johns Hopkins Institute for Planetary Health (JHIPH), the Hopkins Population Center (HPC), and William H. Gates Sr. Institute for Population and Reproductive Health (WHGI) are hosting a virtual session for journalists and content creators interested in the intersection of demographics and planetary health.
The 60-minute session includes five expert pitches, a live Q&A, and details on how to enter the Demographics and Planetary Health Story Prize, which will award cash prizes and editorial placement to the winning reporters or content creators. Attendees will leave with a Story Starter Kit, including the expert presentations, their contact information, and additional resources.
Where Does Your RESET Begin? Food, Health & Planet
Date: Tuesday, 22 September 2026
Time: 2:00 PM
Location: The Impact Lounge at Climate Week NYC & UNGA
230 Fifth Ave / Empire Penthouse, NYC
The conversation will bring together perspectives on the connections between food systems, human health, planetary health, burnout, and resilience, with Third Degree Burnout and Project RESET as the foundation.
Planetary Health Club: Solutions Panel
Date: Tuesday, 22 September 2026
Time: 2:30 – 3:30 PM
Location: The Planetary Health Club, 15 E 40th St
This session will spotlight solutions that protect both human health and the planet’s life-support systems, helping bring humanity back within a safe operating space. Panelists will share what is already working, the barriers to greater impact, and what is needed to accelerate implementation across sectors and regions.
Wednesday, September 23
Regenerative Design – Embracing a New/Old Mindset
Date: Wednesday, 23 September 2026
Time: 9:00 AM–11:00 AM ET
Location: Center for Architecture
Planetary Health Alliance Program Director Jessica Kronstadt joins a panel to explore how regenerative design builds upon enduring lessons from passive design, vernacular architecture, Indigenous knowledge, and systems thinking that have long worked in harmony with local climates, ecosystems, and available resources. Panelists will examine how an understanding of natural flows—of energy, water, materials, and living systems—can reshape contemporary practice, moving beyond efficiency and impact reduction toward restoring ecological and brain health, as well as community regeneration. By reconnecting with these time-tested principles through the lens of today’s climate challenges, attendees will discover how regenerative design represents not a departure from architectural tradition, but a return to a more holistic, place-based way of thinking about the built environment.
Thursday, September 24
Our Brains on a Changing Planet
Date: Thursday, 24 September 2026
Time: 10:00 AM–12:00 PM ET
Location: NYU School of Global Health
The event will explore a question largely missing from the climate conversation: What is a changing planet doing to our brains, and what can we do about it? We’ll bring together scientists, clinicians, mental health experts, Indigenous and community leaders to discuss emerging evidence on how heat, air pollution, climate disasters, and other environmental changes affect brain health across the life course, while importantly moving the conversation toward solutions, prevention, and resilience.
The Neuro Climate Working Group (NCWG) and NYU School of Global Public Health co-host the event, along with partners including Columbia University’s Global Consortium on Climate and Health Education, the Billion Minds Institute, George Mason University, and the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health.
We’ll hear from an exciting group of speakers from Columbia, NYU, Stanford, CUNY, UCL, NRDC, BrainLat, and Yiliyapinya Indigenous Corporation, including a keynote from Prof. Frederica Perera on climate, air pollution, and children’s brain health. The event will also launch the new Neuro Climate Science & Policy Report.
Friday, September 25
Be Heard: Empowering Youth Voices against Climate Change
Date: Friday, 25 September 2026
Time: 9:00 AM–10:00 AM ET
Location: Zoom
Climate change is the threat of the 21st century, posing a grave danger especially to youth, who will live through the harshest consequences of global warming. Through this session, we aim to equip participants to be heard in a struggle that concerns them most and show possible ways to engage and empower themselves. The session will feature Gustavo H. N. Dalle Cort, a recent medical graduate based in Brazil, who serves as Liaison Officer for Public Health Issues at the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations and as head of the UNFCCC-COP30 delegation in Belém.
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