Cities Climate Action Summit 2025

SmartCitiesWorld Opinions introduces us to the Climate Action Summit 2025 through an interview with Dr Shirook Ali (SA).  Let us see what he says.

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Cities Climate Action Summit 2025: Meet the exhibitor – Ecosystem Informatics (ESI)

02 Jun 2025 by Dr Shirook Ali

Sponsored by Ecosystem Informatics (ESI)

Dr Shirook Ali, Founder and CEO of Ecosystem Informatics (ESI), explains what the climate tech firm will be bringing to this year’s Cities Climate Action Summit in London (24-25 June), and what she’s looking forward to at this year’s event.

SmartCitiesWorld (SCW): Why did you choose to get involved with Cities Climate Action Summit this year? 

Dr Shirook Ali (SA): Cities Climate Action Summit is an event that brings together thought leadership and will bring together people that are interested in making an impact – people who Ecosystem Informatics (ESI) wants to get into conversations with. The event brings together those who are looking for solutions and those who have solutions, and for ESI, we’re going through a growth stage and expanding globally. We want to connect cities, government, industry, and also investors who would like to invest in an impact climate company. It’s an event that sits with London Climate Action Week and is a perfect setting to have these conversations. 

SCW: What will you be focused on/demonstrating at this year’s Summit? 

SA: ESI is a climate tech company – our product is providing data and insights to support decision making. We’ll be showcasing and focusing on the importance of this data and how it helps in making the right decision at the right time. It is a critical time; we don’t have much time to rectify or reverse the damage done, so making the right decision is very important. We cannot afford to wait 10 years to see if the decision made was the right one. The conversations I’ll be having are on the importance of having fact-driven decision-making in a timely manner, how data can support those facts, and showcase the impact ESI has been able to make. We provide cities and government officials with this data so they can make the right decision and the community is the beneficiary in real-time, because if you develop an initiative and don’t know the impact, you don’t know whether you should do more or less of it.

I think the important thing is marrying action and economical benefit. When you make the right decision, you’re gaining in the long term because it leads to so many things that grow the economy and healthier communities, which means less spending on health issues and creating communities that are more resilient. 

SCW: What are you hoping to learn from this year’s Summit? 

SA: It’s important for us to understand the challenges cities go through, and through experience, we’ve learned that each city is a unique setting, with unique challenges and needs. Talking to as many people as we can at the event, I want to learn the diverse suite of challenges we can find, whether it’s Europe, the Americas, Africa or Australia. I’m looking forward to finding out what has worked in the past – and what hasn’t – so we can adapt and provide solutions. 

I’m also looking to understand not just the climate challenges but also economic challenges, because you can come up with an action plan, but if you don’t have the resources and support to execute it, it can’t move forward. So what are the economical issues, what are the funding issues that these cities and communities face? We can then see how we can adjust things to provide impact, not just on challenges, but on execution. 

BE PART OF CITIES CLIMATE ACTION SUMMIT 2025 

Do you have an urban climate action story to tell at this year’s Cities Climate Action Summit? Find out how you can become a partner by contacting John O’Grady, or request more event information here.o you have an urban climate action story to tell at this year’s Cities Climate Action Summit? Find out how you 

SCW: What bold steps should cities make to accelerate climate action and what successful examples have you seen? 

SA: ESI has worked with a number of cities, and within those, a number of different departments. For example, we might start with health and safety, uncover findings through the data, and then move those findings to the transportation department because we can then suggest some actions and initiatives. My recommendation is for cities to look at data and share it within their different departments, and see how it can help each department do its piece and add to the solutions, because it’s everybody’s job.

We need to help cities to work collectively – the starting point is to provide personnel with the data and the facts. We start with the environmental data, benchmarking where the city is today and drawing a line of sight into the future. My recommendation would be to start with data, bring departments together and see how the magic will happen. Within months, you can see a very dramatic difference in terms of where you start and what you can achieve.