San Francisco – April 29, 2025

A keynote speech by former US Vice President Al Gore, nearly 600 events all over San Francisco involving more than 1000 organizations, and countless interactions between climate experts: SF Climate Week is a wrap and Swissnex in San Francisco is looking forward to continue the conversation after acting as the official home to two of the SF Climate Week summits, and hosting several events.

For Diego Riva, responsible for Swissnex’s involvement in SF Climate Week in San Francisco, the week was instrumental for fruitful collaborations between different actors in the climate sector: “Our work at Swissnex is to create conditions where collaborations become catalytic. During SF Climate Week, we built countless connections between Swiss innovation and global climate action.”

But the work doesn’t stop here, Swissnex in San Francisco is continuing activities around climate and its challenges, including a focus on robotics and sustainability in the Fall, the continuation of the collaboration with focusTerra, the Earth & Science Discovery Center of ETH Zurich, and an exhibition by artist Heidi Quante that lets visitors witness how climate change has transformed the Lyell Glacier in Yosemite. Launched during SF Climate Week, Quante’s exhibition marks the beginning of a series—one she will bring to Switzerland.

Throughout the week, Swissnex hosted a diverse lineup of events that brought together scientists, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and the public to explore actionable climate solutions from multiple angles. From scaling up climate startups and advancing clean energy systems to addressing climate anxiety and accelerating science-based innovation, each event showcased a unique facet of Swissnex’s mission to foster international collaboration at the intersection of science, technology, and society. Here’s a look back at the key moments from SF Climate Week 2025 at Swissnex:

Seven of the most innovative Swiss Startups pitched at Swissnex in San Francisco at the beginning of SF Climate Week:

Emissium enables businesses to cut carbon emissions and optimize energy use with real-time tracking, predictive analytics, and actionable insights to align consumption with sustainability goals.

Neology is revolutionizing off-grid power with its Ammonia Power Generator, converting ammonia into hydrogen on-site to cut emissions, replace diesel, and provide industries with a scalable, zero-emission energy solution leveraging existing infrastructure.

KUORI develops patented, bio-based, biodegradable, and high-performance materials from food by-products, offering the B2B industry a sustainable alternative to fossil-based products while reducing microplastic pollution.

MobyFly is revolutionizing water transport with zero-emission hydrofoil ferries that glide above the water, cutting energy use by 90% while providing a scalable, high-speed, and sustainable mobility solution with integrated charging and asset management systems.

Brightside strengthens cybersecurity by generating AI-powered attack simulations based on public employee data, helping businesses identify vulnerabilities while providing employees with a privacy portal to monitor and protect their exposed information.

Resilient is transforming workplace well-being with an AI-driven resilience coach that leverages wearables and data fusion to detect burnout risks, boost productivity, and provide hyper-personalized support alongside GDPR-compliant HR insights.

Ageospatial integrates satellite imagery and geodata into a powerful platform, enabling insurers and public safety agencies to generate instant location insights, automate reports, and make faster, data-driven decisions.

The Pitch Night was part of the Startup Camp (open to all industries) powered by Innosuisse, and managed by Swissnex. The two-week program aims to support the selected Swiss startups in their exploration of the US market and immersion in the Silicon Valley ecosystem.

As the first of three summits during SF Climate Week—and one of two hosted by Swissnex—this half-day event, co-organized with Enduring Planet and Climatebase, brought together the climate innovation community for an afternoon of tactical insights and high-impact connections.

Focused on helping climate companies transition from “startup” to “scale-up,” the summit featured expert-led sessions on building strong internal financial operations and navigating the capital stack for growth. Lively discussions and audience engagement created space for sharing real-world strategies and lessons learned from across the sector.

The day concluded with a networking happy hour, where founders, investors, and climate stakeholders came together to exchange ideas and forge new collaborations.

As the second of two summits hosted by Swissnex during SF Climate Week, the SFCW Energy Summit—organized in partnership with Climatebase and sponsored by PG&E, Advanced Energy United, Carbon Direct, and Asuene—brought together leaders from across the energy ecosystem for a day of forward-thinking discussion and collaboration.

The single-day summit featured deep-dive panels and a fireside chat covering some of the most transformative developments in clean energy, including virtual power plants (VPPs), vehicle-to-everything (V2X) technologies, and the evolving clean energy policy landscape. Experts from organizations like SunRun, GM Energy, Carbon Direct, and PG&E shared practical insights and bold visions for an electrified, equitable, and resilient energy future.

The event concluded with closing remarks by California Energy Commission Chair David Hochschild, followed by a networking reception with policymakers, technologists, and climate innovators.

As an official part of SF Climate Week 2025 and the fourth Swissnex-hosted event of the week, From Climate Anxiety to Community Action invited the public to explore how emotional resilience, science, and community engagement can converge to address the climate crisis.

The event marked the opening of the Keep it CO₂OL exhibition, developed by focusTerra at ETH Zurich—the winning project of the 2023 Agora Prize awarded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). The exhibition explores the central role of CO₂ in climate change and emphasizes the urgent need for collective, sustainable solutions.

Pascale Speck, Programs Associate at Swissnex in San Francisco and curator of the event, carefully and intentionally selected a multidisciplinary panel:
“The climate crisis is not just an ecological one—it’s an emotional, psychological, and societal one too. We’re also going to feel it physically. To truly combat climate change, we need to address it through all disciplines. We need connection and cross-disciplinary collaboration. That’s what I focused on and fostered through my curation of this event.”

Speck brought together a group of speakers for a powerful and reflective conversation on climate distress and psychological resilience. Featured speakers included: Dr. Simona Meiler, Postdoctoral Scholar at Stanford University,  Henna Hundal, Medical Scholars Research Fellow at the Stanford School of Medicine, Dr. Ulrike Kastrup, Director of focusTerra at ETH Zurich, Kerstin Bircher, Science Communicator at the ETH Zurich, and Mary Ellen Hannibal, Author, environmental thought leader and moderator of this event

Together, they explored the emotional dimensions of the climate emergency—particularly the rising prevalence of climate anxiety—and offered ways to transform that anxiety into grounded, community-based action.

The event served as a timely reminder that addressing planetary crises requires more than technological solutions—it also demands empathy, new narratives, and reimagined relationships between people and the planet.

To conclude the week, Swissnex in San Francisco and the Frontiers Research Foundation co-hosted an event at Pier 17 that spotlighted science as a driving force for real-world climate action. Titled “Closing the Climate Implementation Gap — Achieving a Global Green Renaissance” the event marked the announcement of the 19 national champions nominated for the Frontiers Planet Prize, which recognizes breakthrough research with the potential to restore planetary health.

Held on April 25, the morning program brought together scientists, innovators, and policymakers to discuss how to accelerate the translation of research into impact.

The panel discussion included Zia Mehrabi, Director of the Better Planet Laboratory at the University of Colorado Boulder, Chloé F. Smith, Climate Change Research Fellow at the Center for Law, Energy & the Environment at the University of California, Berkeley, Gaurav N. Sant, Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and Arthur Groh, CTO of KUORI. The conversation was moderated by Tom Ciavarella, offering insights into the urgent need for science-led solutions that are scalable, practical, and grounded in interdisciplinary collaboration.

A Q&A with the audience allowed for deeper engagement on topics ranging from materials innovation to climate law and policy. The event concluded with networking and light refreshments, offering space for participants to connect and discuss pathways toward a sustainable and resilient future—underscoring the event’s core message: to close the implementation gap, science must be mobilized into action.