Stanford Climate Week 2025: Unity for Climate Action and Innovation

Stanford Climate Week 2025 arrived with 40+ events and 1 mission as ambitious as it was clear: to turn climate ambition into concrete, scalable action. From October 20–26, the university transformed into a hub of dialogue, collaboration, and bold ideas, uniting students, researchers, investors, and founders around one question: how do we build the future we need, fast enough?

As a freshman at Stanford University, I made it my goal to attend as many events as possible and immerse myself in the momentum, and below are a few of my favorites.

Trailblazing Women in Climate

Wednesday evening, there was an electrifying session titled Trailblazing Women in Climate: Inspiring Stanford Builders & Innovators, featuring Sophie Purdom (Planeteer Capital, CTVC) and Mona Alsubaei (Transition VC). Sophie’s talk stood out for its realism; she didn’t romanticize climate investing but unpacked how capital, data, and founder grit intersect to create real momentum. Her reflection on raising Planeteer’s first $55M fund amid a turbulent market underscored the resilience required to back climate tech when the headlines fade. Mona complemented this with an investor’s lens on transformation. Her insights into identifying technologies with efficient additionality highlighted how venture capital, when paired with technical curiosity and boldness, can unlock whole new frontiers of the energy transition.

Starting and Scaling Nature-Based Solutions

The Nature-Based Solutions panel was one of the most future-facing sessions of the week. Moderated with clarity and purpose, it gathered innovators like Isabelle Foster (WWF Impact), Mike Kent (New Leaf), Natalie Urban (Symbiosis Coalition), and Leif Gonzales-Kramer (Working Trees). Each speaker offered a window into how nature itself can become infrastructure for a sustainable economy.

Mike’s experience blending public and private finance illustrated how blended finance helps unlock the scale and speed needed to close the finance gap. Meanwhile, Leif’s silvopasture work across Brazil and the U.S. reminded the audience that scaling nature-based solutions isn’t just about carbon markets; it’s about livelihoods and landscapes. The session’s takeaway was powerful: the next climate unicorns may not be software companies, but stewards of nature who can measure and monetize restoration at scale.

The Future of Green Finance: Crux & Lumen Fireside Chat

If the previous panel looked to nature, this fireside chat turned to numbers. Featuring Peter Light, CEO of Lumen, and Jess Zhao, Head of Operations at Crux, the conversation offered a sharp look at how financial innovation is reimagining the climate economy from the ground up.

The discussion hit a refreshing note: that climate finance is no longer a niche; it’s a mainstream engine of opportunity. Hearing executives describe how tax equity and capital markets can be made transparent and accessible was deeply optimistic.

Networking with DESRI: The Human Side of Climate Investing

The DESRI networking session offered a welcome shift in tone: less theory, more connection. Students, early-career professionals, and industry leaders mingled over shared passions for renewables. The conversations ranged from career advice to policy shifts to the realities of scaling wind and solar projects. It was a reminder that behind every climate deal are people building trust, mentorship, and momentum.

Keynote: Getting Climate Deals Done

The speakers Mike Schroepfer (Gigascale Capital, former Meta CTO) and Sophie Purdom brought pragmatism to the climate fight. Mike’s call to “make clean solutions the obvious choice” resonated with a generation eager to deploy tools, not just theories. Sophie explained how CTVC began as a weekly newsletter to make the opaque world of climate tech more transparent, turning data, deals, and trends into an accessible roadmap for builders and investors alike. Their conversation left attendees with a clear message: execution, not just enthusiasm, will define this decade of climate action.

Reverse Pitch: When Investors Sell You Their Vision

Friday evening’s Reverse Pitch session flipped the script. Instead of founders pitching investors, leading climate VCs from Lowercarbon, G2VP, Elemental Impact, Gigascale, Voyager, Clean Energy Ventures, and Bay Bridge Ventures pitched their theses to the audience. It was both enlightening and empowering to see investors articulate why students and entrepreneurs should choose them.

This format demystified venture capital and made the ecosystem feel collaborative. Each pitch reflected a slightly different flavor of optimism and had different investment categories but all converged on one theme: climate solutions are the most exciting frontier in entrepreneurship today.

Closing the Week, Opening the Future

As Stanford Climate Week wrapped up, Diane-Charlotte Simon delivered an inspiring keynote on the power of finance and innovation to drive a low-carbon future. With over a decade of experience and $20+ billion financed, including $10 billion in renewables, she shared lessons from her journey in sustainable finance and her work as lead author of Sustainability: Business and Investment Implications.

She also introduced to the audience the broad spectrum of career opportunities that sustainability can lead to and the tool Climate Tech Atlas, which can be used to identify sectors with great potential for reaching net zero.

Final Thoughts

Stanford Climate Week 2025 lived up to its tagline “Dynamic. Interdisciplinary. Action-driven.” Beyond panels and PowerPoints, it cultivated something deeper: a sense that Stanford’s role in the climate movement is not just academic but catalytic.

Mitch Rubin, Senior Director, Investments & Innovation of Elemental Impact, aptly said, “Let’s keep fighting the good fight.” And judging by the energy of the week, we are all in.

Author: Cherry Sung (center)