Even after every vote has been cast, the fight for the
Green New Deal will be far from over.
We know it might take days or even weeks for every ballot to be counted.
Trump is already openly refusing to leave office even if he loses. And
even if Joe Biden is declared the winner, we need to make it clear from
Day 1 that we won’t back down until he makes the Green New Deal the law
of the land.
The Climate Action Symposia series aims to advance our community’s
understanding and expand our capacity to generate solutions for the
urgent global challenge of climate change. The six symposia examine the
current state of climate science and policy, as well as pathways for
decarbonization of the global economy. We will also look at how
universities can and should contribute solutions, including
MIT’s efforts under our Plan for Action on
Climate Change.
The fifth of MIT’s six Climate Action
Symposia, The Role of Research Universities and
MIT’s Climate Initiatives, will be held
virtually on Tuesday, October 20, 2020. Topics will include:
how research universities can help the world deal with the climate
crisis;
initiatives being developed by MIT to reduce
carbon emissions;
Two former Obama Administration officials discuss how the United States
might address climate change with foreign policy measures. They argue
for “a full mobilization at home and an unhesitating commitment to
leadership abroad” along with a willingness to use American “political
capital and economic resources to drive the decarbonization of the
global economy.”
John Podesta is the founder and a member of the Board of Directors for
the Center for American Progress. Podesta served as counselor to
President Barack Obama, where he was responsible for coordinating the
administration’s climate policy and initiatives. In 2008, he served as
co-chair of President Obama’s transition team. He was a member of the
U.N. Secretary General’s High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the
Post-2015 Development Agenda. Podesta previously served as White House
chief of staff to President William J. Clinton. He chaired Hillary
Clinton’s campaign for president in 2016.
Todd Stern is a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution
concentrating on climate change. Stern served from January 2009 until
April 2016, as the special envoy for climate change at the Department
of State. He was President Obama’s chief climate negotiator, leading
the U.S. effort in negotiating the Paris Agreement and in all
bilateral and multilateral climate negotiations in the seven years
leading up to Paris. Stern also participated in the development of
U.S. domestic climate and clean energy policy. He is a member of the
Council on Foreign Relations.
Moderators
William Antholis serves as director and CEO
of the Miller Center. Immediately prior, he was managing director at
The Brookings Institution, and from 1995 to 1999 he served in
government. At the White House, he was director of international
economic affairs on the staff of the National Security Council and
National Economic Council, where he served as the chief staff person
for the G8 Summits in 1997 and 1998. Antholis is the author of Inside
Out India and China: Local Politics Go Global and, with Strobe Talbot,
Fast Forward: Ethics and Politics in the Age of Global Warming.
Deborah Lawrence is a professor of Environmental Sciences at the
University of Virginia. Her research focuses on the links between
tropical deforestation and climate change. She has spent the past
twenty-five years doing field-based research in Indonesia, Costa Rica,
Mexico and Cameroon. Professor Lawrence and her students conduct
interdisciplinary research with partners in hydrology, atmospheric
science, economics, anthropology, ethics, engineering, and law to
understand the drivers and consequences of land use change. This work
has gained her a Sustainability Science Award from the Ecological
Society of America, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Jefferson Science
Fellowship from the National Academy of Sciences, and a Fulbright
Scholarship.
You’ve seen the headlines. Ice in the Arctic is melting at record rates
and warming at twice the global average – and the Trump administration
continues to hand over control of the Arctic to Big Oil. We’re hosting a
forum on Monday, October 5, to learn how the higher temperatures are
wreaking havoc on wildlife, fisheries and humans who have call the
Arctic home for generations.
This hearing will explore the ways that the climate crisis exacerbates
economic harm and injustice, and identify strategies to strengthen
financial systems and enhance access to capital to support community
resilience and economic recovery.
Witnesses:
Rostin
Behnam,
Commissioner, Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). As sponsor
of the CFTC’s Market Risk Advisory Committee
(MRAC), Commissioner Behnam engages leading market experts and public
consumer groups on issues relating to evolving market structures and
movement of risk across clearinghouses, exchanges, intermediaries,
market makers, and end-users. Commissioner Behnam convened the
Climate-Related Market Risk Subcommittee to provide a report to the
MRAC on climate-related financial and market
risks.
Joanna
Syroka,
Senior Underwriter and Director of New Markets, Fermat Capital
Management. Dr. Syroka has extensive experience in structuring and
placing risk transfer programs in both emerging and developed markets.
Prior to joining Fermat Capital in 2017, she was the director of
research & development at African Risk Capacity (ARC), Africa’s first
sovereign insurance pool, which she helped design and establish
in 2012. At ARC, she led the development of
their parametric drought, flood, cyclone, pandemic, and climate
insurance initiatives.
Maggie
Monast,
Director of Working Lands, Environmental Defense Fund. Monast works
with farmers, food companies, agricultural organizations, and others
to create an agricultural system that drives climate stability, clean
water, and food security. Specifically, Monast works to quantify the
farm financial impacts of conservation practice adoption, collaborates
with major corporations to develop sustainability initiatives, and
develops innovative financial incentives to advance sustainable
agriculture.
Rich
Powell,
Executive Director, ClearPath. Powell leads ClearPath, whose mission
is to develop and advance conservative policies that accelerate clean
energy innovation. Rich served as a member of the 2019 Advisory
Committee to the Export Import Bank of the United States. He is also
on the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center’s Advisory Group.
Even after every vote has been cast, the fight for the
Green New Deal will be far from over.