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.
The hearing will focus on ensuring a just, equitable transition to a
net-zero clean energy economy that creates good-paying, high-quality
jobs.
Witnesses:
Dr. Ana
Baptista,
Assistant Professor of Professional Practice and Associate Director of
the Tishman Environment and Design Center, The New School, on behalf
of New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance and the Equitable and
Just Climate Forum. Dr. Baptista’s research and professional practice
focuses on environmental and climate justice. She works directly with
impacted communities and coalitions to support the advancement of
community-led alternatives to achieve environmental justice.
Jason
Walsh,
Executive Director, BlueGreen Alliance. Walsh has more than twenty
years of experience at state and federal levels in policy development
and advocacy in a range of issue areas, including climate, clean
energy, and economic and workforce development. He previously served
in the Obama administration, as the Director of the Office of
Strategic Programs in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy
Efficiency and Renewable Energy, and as a Senior Policy Advisor in the
White House Domestic Policy Council, where he led the Obama
administration’s efforts to align and scale up federal investments in
workers and communities impacted by the shift away from coal in the
power sector.
Beth
Soholt,
Executive Director, Clean Grid Alliance (CGA_Midwest), on behalf of
American Council on Renewable Energy and Americans for a Clean Energy
Grid. Soholt has more than 15 years of experience working with the
electric industry, with a focus on helping overcome the barriers to
bringing wind power to market. She holds a seat on the Midwest
Independent System Operator (MISO) Advisory Committee, representing
the Environmental Sector.
Michael
Shellenberger
(Minority Witness), Founder and President, Environmental Progress
Join our chair Michelle Deatrick July 22 at 7pm ET as she facilitates a
conversation between actress
and activist Jane Fonda, Representative Deb Haaland (D-NM), Sunrise
Movement National Spokesperson Naina Agrawal-Hardin, and 350 Action’s
North America Director, Tamara Toles O’Laughlin, about why Democrats
need to run on climate.