Anticipating the Biden administration’s bold proposals for urgent economy-wide action on climate change, the Aspen Institute Energy & Environment Program convened a group of policymakers, experts and practitioners to consider solutions to expedite climate action. Over a series of three roundtable conversations in the winter months between 2020 and 2021, these professionals focused on the following problem:

“Achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 is ecologically essential, technologically feasible, economically achievable, but procedurally impossible.”

The discussions led to a unanimous conclusion: to truly succeed in decarbonizing the economy, we must take bold action to modernize and reform our environmental review and permitting processes to implement decarbonization projects with the scale, speed, and predictability that confronting the climate crisis requires. Strong funding and the best intentions to invest in infrastructure will otherwise be met with years of delay and uncertainty that will hinder progress and threaten the viability of projects needed to solve the problem.

This event will feature some of the roundtable participants joined by special guests to discuss the final report and its implications.

Featuring:

• Greg Gershuny, Executive Director, Energy & Environment Program, The Aspen Institute
• Katie McGinty, VP & Chief Sustainability, Government and Regulatory Affairs Officer, Johnson Controls
• The Honorable Congressman Paul Tonko, Chair, Subcommittee on Environment and Climate Change, Committee on Energy and Commerce, United States House of Representatives
• Jim Connaughton, CEO, Nautilus Data Technologies
• Collette Honorable, Partner, Reed Smith LLP
• Emily Schapira, President and CEO, Philadelphia Energy Authority