The business case for nature conservation at Climate Week NYC

At Climate Week NYC, we sit down on the sidelines with Daniela Raik, the newly appointed Interim CEO at Conservation International.

Conservation International is a nonprofit that partners with governments, companies, civil society, Indigenous peoples and local communities to help people and nature thrive together. In our conversation, Daniela explains why nature was a big focus at Climate Week NYC in 2025, which coincided with the ratification of a historic UN treaty to safeguard marine biodiversity on the high seas.

Daniela said Climate Week NYC brought to the fore the importance of financing conservation and mainstreaming the business value of nature.

"I'm really sensing that this week: New ideas about how do we finance conservation, how do we mainstream the value that nature brings into business," Daniela tells us. "I'm hearing that not only from business leaders, but from government leaders as well."

Daniela says this focus on nature will carry through to the UN's COP30 Climate Change Conference in Belém, Brazil, this November.

"This is the Amazonian COP. Belém is a city in the heart of the Amazon, and so Brazil is really prioritizing the role that nature, and forests in particular, can and must play as a climate solution," she says.

Listen to all our coverage from Climate Week NYC 2025:

Kicking off Climate Week NYC in a fragmented global landscape | S&P Global

Climate Week, meet Fashion Week

Water, water everywhere in Climate Week NYC conversations

Climate Group CEO talks momentum in the face of obstacles

As part of a multi-year philanthropic grants program launched in 2024 by the S&P Global Foundation, Conservation International is a Signature Grant Partner in the focus area of creating environmental resilience and will receive $2.5 million over five years.

This piece was published by S&P Global Sustainable1 and not by S&P Global Ratings, which is a separately managed division of S&P Global.

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