Montrealers gather for the city’s first-ever Climate Week

The week invited locals to get involved in climate-centred events relating to fields of their personal interests

NewsAbigail Best — Published September 15, 2026 3 minutes

Montreal Climate Week brought experts and businesses together to address pressing climate concerns and how Montrealers could take action. The event took place across the city from Sept. 8 to Sept. 13. 

“There's no bigger power than art and communication,” said Steven Dagenais Narváez, founder of business development and environmental solutions company Mydas Greenworks. 

Mydas Greenworks hosted Climate Sector & Creative Industries 5@7 on Sept. 10, a casual networking cocktail for Montreal’s creative and environmental community. Participants connected and exchanged ideas based on their personal experience and expertise over drinks and finger foods. 

Dagenais Narváez said he aimed to bring climate specialists, innovators and artists together to collaborate and create resources that help the public engage with climate urgency. 

“I feel like art has the power to change people's lives, tell stories, in a way that a lot of the climate innovation is siloed,” said Dagenais Narváez

Dagenais Narváez said the creative industry could be a catalyst for change in how solutions are tackled in this sector and highlighted the importance of artists who act as intermediaries between climate specialists and the rest of the world. 

Abdel Mounim Echcharika, a student at École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS), said he attended the event because it aligned with his field of study: climate change and the environment. 

 “The main problem of climate change is that we have solutions, but we need to communicate these solutions, and communicate them to a large scale of society,” said Echcharika. 

In order to communicate the solutions to the public, Echcharika explained that the ideas should be creative, which is where art comes in. 

Though it started in Montreal, the Climate Week movement aims to draw attention to and reach a nationwide scale where a diverse range of perspectives can come into play. 

The Climate Summit Simulation that was held on Sept. 8 at ÉTS took a more political approach to the week. 

The simulation event gave people of all backgrounds the opportunity to participate in a live United Nations climate summit role-play, where they took on the roles of politicians, representatives and advocates. They could watch the effects of their decisions unfold on the spot through En-ROADS, a free, public climate simulator. 

Éric Francoeur, a professor in the department of general education at ÉTS, hosted the event alongside Adrián Tóth. 

“We know what we have to do. It's just that adopting the policies that need to be adopted is socially and politically difficult,” Francoeur said. 

He explained that politicians play a key role in decision-making but often focus on making people happy, which does not always align with what is best for the climate. 

“Decision-makers have a special spot. They're the ones who can make things happen, and if we can convince them or show them the way, that can be very helpful,” Francoeur said. 

He indicated that the general public has to take a proactive step to guide the way to a bigger solution. 

“It can actually illustrate the impacts of the business-as-usual model,” Francoeur said, in relation to the En-ROADS simulator. “It might give them a bit of hope.”

Montreal Climate Week is set to take place once again in summer 2027 in a series of events that also include the Montreal Climate Summit and the Sustainable Finance Summit. 

“By bringing these three major events together in a single week, Montreal is positioning itself to harness the expertise, levers for action and influence needed to accelerate the transition,” Florian Roulle said, vice president of sustainable finance at Finance Montréal.