The Biggest Moments From the TIME100 Climate Leadership Forum

Climate leaders from various fields gathered for the inaugural TIME100 Climate Leadership Forum in New York City on Monday to discuss how icons, politicians, activists, policymakers, and business leaders can all work, often together, to find innovative climate solutions and prioritize sustainability.

A series of five panel discussions featured environmentalist Jane Goodall, a number of business executives, industry and government energy experts, former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, and those fighting to achieve climate equity. The panelists’ wide-ranging roles in the fight against climate change contributed to diverse conversations, highlighting how the issue affects people across all sectors.

The evening kickstarted with a spoken-word performance by two Future Rising Fellows with Girl Rising: Charitie Ropati, an activist and ecologist of Yup’ik and Samoan heritage, and Dayana Blanco Quiroga, an Indigenous woman from Bolivia who co-founded the Uru Uru Team. The two highlighted how their Indigenous communities have been harmed by the climate crisis and emphasized the importance of Indigenous knowledge, community resilience, and the need for sustainable solutions. 

“Indigenous science is rooted in the principles of care,” Ropati said. “Indigenous people have always known that our answers lie within earth, air, and water. The answers we need are here.”

After the performance, Goodall, 90, took the stage in a conversation with 22-year-old climate justice activist Xiye Bastida. The two discussed topics ranging from the importance of voting for leaders dedicated to protecting the planet to the impact that each person can have on the environment.

“I get a lot of strength from people like you,” Goodall said to Bastida. “You’re the next generation.”

Read More: Jane Goodall and Youth Activist Xiye Bastida Talk Picking Leaders Who Prioritize the Planet

TIME Chief Climate Officer Shyla Raghav then moderated a panel discussion of five business leaders across industries, including insurance, health care, and technology. The panel focused on how the private sector can incentivize climate action through innovation and integrating sustainability into financial strategies, create a corporate culture of sustainability, and navigate the non-linear path towards net zero emissions. 

“Businesses will always have a bias towards action, moving fast, finding the solutions, innovations,” said Ezgi Barcenas, chief sustainability officer of L’Oréal Groupe, when asked about the company’s partnership with government and the public sector. “But we also like to operate within a frame, so how do we create those frameworks? How do we become part of the public debate?”

Read More: How Businesses Are Prioritizing Innovation to Catalyze Climate Solutions

U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm, International Energy Agency Executive Director Fatih Birol, and Iberdrola Executive Chairman Ignacio Galán joined TIME senior correspondent Justin Worland for a discussion about the clean energy transition. The panel focused on progress already made—both in the U.S. and around the world—and what the future holds.

Alluding to the upcoming U.S. election, Granholm said it would be “political malpractice” for any future leader to try to undo the benefits, such as job growth, that are happening across the country because of clean energy.

Read More: The Clean Energy Transition Is Already Underway

TIME Editor in Chief Sam Jacobs then moderated a conversation with Ardern, discussing her transformative climate leadership in New Zealand as well as her perspective about the role governments and politicians play in prioritizing climate action. “I expect politicians to do their job, I expect policymakers too, and I expect private institutions as well. We all have to maintain our expectation bias,” she told Jacobs, urging the audience to continue to ask for more from those in power.

Read More: How Jacinda Ardern Sees Everyone as a Player in the Climate Fight

The final panel focused on how climate leaders can address the inequalities amplified by climate change. TIME’s Worland returned to the stage to discuss these issues with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael S. Regan; Sharon Lavigne, founder and CEO of the grassroots nonprofit RISE St. James Louisiana; and Lisa Jackson, vice president of environment, policy, and social initiatives at Apple. Lavigne provided first-hand accounts of how pollution is affecting her community. “People are dying,” she said, listing friends of hers who have been diagnosed with cancer. “The pollution is in the air, in the water, in the soil.”

Regan highlighted how partnership between the public and private sectors—particularly those who listen to the struggles of community members like Lavigne—serves as a space for optimism in efforts for climate equity.

Read More: How Public and Private Sector Leaders Are Tackling Climate Equity

“This is the true way we’re going to begin to reach into communities like the ones that Sharon lives in,” Regan said. “We can say to some of these industrial facilities, ‘We know that the people you’re supplying products to—i.e. Apple—demand a cleaner environment, and so do these communities, and we’re going to be there as a regulator to enforce that.’”

The TIME100 Climate Leadership Forum was presented by American Family Insurance, Cisco, Dow Packaging & Specialty Plastics, Fortescue, Iberdola, L'Oréal Groupe, Siemens, and GSK.