The Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia SIPA is hosting a series of energy and climate-focused events during Climate Week NYC from September 22-29, 2024. These events will bring together policymakers, industry leaders, scholars, and students to discuss innovative solutions, share research, and promote policies for a sustainable and equitable energy future. Topics include global renewable energy, geopolitical dynamics, critical minerals supply chains, financing, trade, and energy access. Be sure to see all our activities during the week.

Around the world, countries are making transformative investments and deploying innovative trade policies to meet the urgent challenge of climate change. This pivot towards green trade and industrial policies has coincided with a broader reassessment of the purpose and function of global trade norms, rules, and institutions. Resolving the tensions between trade and climate–and seizing the opportunities trade presents in the transition to a low-carbon economy–is essential to developing a comprehensive global strategy to facilitate the shift from fossil fuels to clean energy.

This event will serve as the first public gathering organized by the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia SIPA’s Trade and Clean Energy Transition Program.  Key decision-makers in the trade, climate, and foreign policy communities, as well as industry representatives, will discuss the past, present, and future of climate-aligned trade and industrial policy and its impact in a pivotal election year around the world. The discussions will focus on lessons learned and the path forward for policymakers seeking to build on and foster cooperation around transformative achievements such as the Inflation Reduction Act and the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism.

Key topics will include a world defined by multiple non-identical border carbon adjustments, the treatment of green subsidies, China’s dominance of cleantech supply chains, the effects of a diminished WTO on trade cooperation, and emerging economies’ role in the green transition.

Confirmed speakers include:

• Roberto Azevêdo, Founding Partner at YvY Capital and former WTO Director General;
• Jim Connaughton, Former Chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality and Director of the White House Office of Environmental Policy;
• John Corrigan, Senior Director for Trade and Climate, Silverado Policy Accelerator.
• Jennifer Hillman, Professor of Practice, Georgetown University Law Center, and former WTO Appellate Body Member;
• Catrina Rorke, Senior Vice President for Policy and Research, Climate Leadership Council;
• Kadri Simson, Commissioner for Energy, European Union;
• Mike Pyle, Former Deputy U.S. National Security Advisor for International Economics