Civil society groups nudge and cajole world leaders from the sidelines of United Nations week

NEW YORK (AP) — As the meeting of world leaders kicked off at the United Nations on Sunday, across Manhattan on an elevated park that runs along old rail lines, throngs of people streamed through a “climate science fair” showcasing work on nature, food and the energy transition.

Emerson Collective funds the nonprofits, advocacy organizations and companies at the fair and brought them all to town as counterprogramming to the U.N. General Assembly. The annual convening this year amounted to a shaky demonstration by nation states that they can still work together to solve the world's compounding crises.

“The U.N. and so many of those meetings, they are critical, but they are happening behind closed doors. And they’re very future looking, future facing and commitment based,” said Gabe Kleinman, a partner at Emerson Collective, which is billionaire Laurene Powell Jobs' philanthropy and investing organization. Kleinman said that in contrast to the U.N. events, the science fair was open to all and highlighted solutions for climate change that the organization thinks could be impactful right now.

The fair is part of a crush of events every September that unfold on the sidelines of the official high-level meetings, where nonprofits, advocates and fundraisers mingle and lobby world leaders, billionaires and funders — and plan their next steps with each other.