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Last Updated on: 1st September 2025, 11:38 am
Back in 2020, New York City presented the world with an idea for something called the Center for Climate Solutions, an ambitious brick-and-mortar research and community connections platform aimed at hyper-accelerating strategies for a sustainable future, locally and globally. Now President Donald Trump has returned to office with a powerful fossil fuel agenda in his pocket and willing enablers in Congress. Nevertheless, the Center for Climate Solutions is still on track, with the forthcoming New York Climate Exchange as its centerpiece.
Work Goes On At The Center For Climate Solutions
It seems that no-one and nothing are shielded from the long arm of the White House these days, with leading academic institutions among those in the crosshairs. However, the Center for Climate Solutions could escape the fate of other institutions if only on account of the construction timeline. The anchor tenant of the campus will be a new academic institution called the New York Climate Exchange, but they do not expect to be up and running until the fall of 2029, a good six months after President Trump leaves office — peacefully one hopes, this time.
If all goes according to plan, the Center for Climate Solutions and the Climate Exchange will be housed in a new building on historic Governors Island in the New York Harbor. The former military installation totals 172 acres, of which 22 acres is controlled by the National Park Service under the National Monument network. The remaining 150 acres are owned by the City of New York and managed by the public-private organization Trust for Governors Island.
Amazon, Con Edison, Donald A. Pels Charitable Trust, and New York Community Trust are among the private sector partners supporting the Trust for Governors Island.
In one sign that work continues apace, on September 1st, the top Swedish engineering firm Skanska announced that the Trust for Governors Island has contracted it to build a new substation on Governors Island at a cost of $67 million. Groundbreaking is expected before the end of the summer, with completion scheduled for 2027. That slots into the Climate Exchange timeline, which calls for groundbreaking next year in advance of the 2029 opening.
“The Substation will serve several new tenant developments including a new public-school facility opening in September 2027, as well as the New York Climate Exchange, a planned 37,000 square meter research and education consortium dedicated to developing and implementing solutions to the global climate crisis in New York City and beyond,” Skanska notes.
The New York Climate Exchange Is Coming For Your Fossil Fuels
The Climate Exchange did not just helicopter into Governors Island out of nowhere. The search for an anchor tenant began in 2020 and finally concluded with the selection of the New York Climate Exchange by the Center for Climate Solutions.
The Climate Exchange will function as a new branch of the sprawling State University of New York system as a project of Stony Brook University in collaboration with Oxford University and Brookhaven National Laboratory among other partners. IBM and Bloomberg Philanthropies also chipped in with a financial assist when the selection was announced.
“The Exchange is a first-of-its-kind model for developing and implementing solutions to the global climate crisis in New York and around the world,” the Trust for Governors Island explains.
“The Exchange is a global hub that leverages the collective power of education, research, workforce development, policy development, and public programming to advance climate action at the local, national, and global level,” they add.
The Many Moving Parts Of Climate Solutions
The New York Climate Exchange is an ambitious endeavor, but it is just one project of the newly formed Harbor Climate Collaborative. The organization bills itself as “the center of a burgeoning climate innovation ecosystem in New York City.” It coordinates three powerful public-private economic engines, the Trust for Governors Island, the New York City Economic Development Corporation, and the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation.
“The Collaborative is a key commitment of the Green Economy Action Plan, NYC’s roadmap to invest in the jobs and sectors that will help the city combat climate change, and train and position New Yorkers — particularly those from environmentally-disadvantaged communities — to benefit from the nearly 400,000 projected “green-collar” jobs in New York City by 2040,” NYC EDC explains.
“As the core of New York City’s burgeoning climate innovation ecosystem, the Collaborative will invest over $725 million to advance New York’s green economy in NYCEDC’s Sunset Park District, the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and on Governors Island,” they add.
The Climate Is Not Going Anywhere, And Neither Are Climate Solutions
If you caught that thing about 2040, that’s a good 10 years past January 20, 2029, when President Trump is scheduled to leave office, or at least that’s what he is supposed to do under the terms of the US Constitution.
Regardless of what the President does or doesn’t do over the next 3-1/2 years or so, the climate crisis is not going anywhere, and neither are climate solutions. The march of technology has sustained itself throughout modern history regardless of any temporary shift in public policy. Just look at the US auto industry, where long term planning for an EV future is continuing apace, including Ford and General Motors as well as the new startup Slate Auto.
Still, the Climate Exchange has been keeping itself under a low profile over the past few months. The President has plenty of room to do plenty of damage to climate planning in New York State, and New York Governor Kathy Hochul may be running out of cards to play.
New York State narrowly dodged a bullet in April, when Interior Secretary Doug Burgum single-handedly brought the Empire Wind project to a screeching halt. Governor Hochul negotiated a restart, with the fate of new gas pipelines in the state among the bargaining chips.
Also on the table was a high-profile upgrade of Amtrak’s Pennsylvania Station in midtown Manhattan. New York taxpayers were originally on the hook for $1 billion in costs, but in April — during the dustup over Empire Wind — Hochul convinced Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy that the President should take all the credit for the makeover, shifting costs over to the shoulders of federal taxpayers everywhere.
On August 27, Duffy announced a $43 million grant to Amtrak, aimed at fast-tracking the Penn Station. The move was enthusiastically endorsed by Hochul that same day. However, just two days later, on August 29th, Duffy announced that New York will lose $48 million in Transportation Department funds that were supposed help upgrade the Arthur Kill Terminal on Staten Island for use as an offshore wind port.
No word yet on reaction from Hochul’s office, or from Staten Island residents who were counting on new local employment opportunities at the port. Well, you get what you pay for. Voters on Staten Island gave the President a big thumbs-up of 64% last November.
Photo: The forthcoming New York Climate Exchange is still on track for construction, positioning New York City as leading center of local and global climate action (courtesy of nyc.gov).
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