Like many who descended on New York for its annual climate gathering, my colleague Zach and I wondered what 2025 would bring. In past years, splashy climate pledges trumpeted the start of Climate Week NYC. This year, it began with the US president dismissing climate change as a “con job” and “green scam” at the UN General Assembly.

Despite Washington’s cold shoulder, the mood in New York was cautiously optimistic and strikingly pragmatic. Attendance hit a sixteen-year high. Global resolve filled the space created by the US, as over 120 countries — including, for the first time, China — established new emissions targets. Business leaders shied away from the lofty promises of prior summits; yet where there were fewer words, there was plenty of capital committed to innovative decarbonisation technology: from Levi’s and Schneider’s supplier renewables accelerator, to Microsoft’s low-carbon cement deal, to Mastercard’s circularity cohort.

moral imperative to market solutions

This, as it turned out, was the prevailing theme of the week. In crowded event halls across New York, talk of “climate” yielded to grounded debate about grid resilience, energy security, and (naturally) AI.

That the world is shooting past 1.5°C is now viewed as inevitable, as are the very-real physical ramifications for communities and companies across the globe. At the same time, utilities are straining under the vast and growing demands of power-hungry data centres, the explosive growth of which is slowing global progress towards a low-carbon economy.

Despair? Hardly. What emerged instead was a shift toward pragmatic economics; acceptance funnelled into promising technological and market solutions. From among the discussions, investment announcements, and dealmaking rose the proof points: encouraging evidence — such as South Africa harnessing cheap solar to mitigate persistent blackouts — that the transition is underway and working.

Insurance, in particular, took centre stage as both signal and tool: forcing adaptation through risk pricing; scaling mitigation technology by making projects bankable; and building the data-sharing capabilities needed to model long-term risk with enough accuracy to guide capital. That said, the industry remains some way from matching potential with capacity. To paraphrase Mark Zandi, Chief Economist at Moody’s: the market is not working if it falls on governments to compensate for insurance shortfalls.

carbon credits as financial assets

With sustainable aviation fuel uptake lagging forecasts and data-centre demand prolonging fossil-fuel reliance, abatement timelines are stretching — and elevating the role of offsetting in near-term decarbonisation strategies.

In New York, carbon credits surfaced not as an abstract corporate sustainability tool but as a financial asset class in the making. Conversation with policymakers, business executives, and carbon-market leaders turned on a central dilemma: climate liabilities are showing up in corporate supply chains and accounts, yet executives struggle to justify carbon purchases if treated as an expense rather than an investment.

There are clear signs that the market is moving towards financial treatment. Forty-six per cent of credits issued today carry Core Carbon Principles (CCPs) and trade at a 25% premium, indicating that ‘integrity’ is not static but fluid and being priced. In tandem, a more targeted approach is gaining traction: frame credits as assets — long-term instruments that can offset balance-sheet liabilities over time. Pension and asset funds are beginning to adopt this mental model, much as they did with renewables, by treating nature investments not as philanthropy but as financial assets that balance risk.

But fragmentation continues to drag. Executives were clear that the ‘alphabet soup’ of standards, coupled with pressure to pursue environmental perfection, is stalling corporate demand. Until carbon is consistently recognised as an asset rather than a discretionary act of philanthropy — and one that reflects a spectrum of quality and price — balance-sheet treatment will remain inconsistent and buying decisions hesitant.

Looking ahead to COP30

Climate Week New York 2025 underscored is that climate finance is shifting from moral appeal to market mechanics. Insurance is beginning to price mitigation and adaptation, financial institutions are entering the fray, credits are inching toward asset status, and governments are pushing forward — with or without US support. The next test will be at COP30, where we expect to see whether countries and corporations can turn this emerging pragmatism into a coherent framework that channels capital quickly enough to match the pace of physical risk.

Oka Founder & CEO Chris Slater joins Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA)’s Kyoo-Won Oh, Howden’s Holly Roberts-Harry, Kita’s Racheal Notto, and host Andrea Bonzanni for the panel ‘Insuring Risk in Carbon Markets: An Overview of Emerging Solutions’ at the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA)’s North America Climate Summit (NACS)