Cornell Climate Impact Speaker Series
The Cornell Climate Impact Speaker Series highlights the work of prominent leaders in climate change mitigation and adaptation. It is an opportunity for the Cornell community to hear from climate professionals in business, academia, philanthropy, and government and learn from their experiences and insights.
(A time for conversation and refreshments will follow each event.)
This series is organized and sponsored by The 2030 Project and Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability.
September 5: Aliya Haq ’03 (Breakthrough Energy)
(video)
In the last three years, Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), establishing approximately $500 billion in federal funding for clean energy projects. These laws together represent the most historic action any nation has ever taken to address climate change and ushered in a new era of optimism for a clean energy future. However, the success of these laws hangs in the balance, with political obstacles, regulatory hurdles, and infrastructure bottlenecks creating significant headwinds for clean energy projects to move forward. This conversation will include looking back at the work behind-the-scenes that led to the creation and passage of these laws, and looking ahead to what work is needed in coming months and years to ensure that the US is able to realize the full potential of the IRA/BIL, and achieve significant GHG reductions.
Aliya Haq ’03 leads the team at Breakthrough Energy that advocates for an ambitious climate policy agenda in the U.S. that will accelerate the transition to a global clean energy economy. She manages the development of policy ideas and frameworks to speed up clean technology innovation and deployment across multiple economic sectors, including power, industrial, buildings, transportation, and agriculture. She also oversees strategies around grantmaking, convening, policymaker education, and communications to advance clean energy and climate policy.
October 3: CANCELLED – Augustus Doricko (Rainmaker)
Augustus Doricko is the founder of Rainmaker, a cloud-seeding geoengineering startup that aims to create water abundance in the United States.
November 7: Constantine Samaras (Carnegie Mellon University)
[5:00 p.m., 184 Myron Taylor Hall, Register]
Constantine (Costa) Samaras is a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Affiliated Faculty in the Energy Science, Technology and Policy Program at Carnegie Mellon University. His research focuses on the pathways to clean, climate-safe, equitable, and secure energy and infrastructure systems. From 2021-2024, he served in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) as the Principal Assistant Director for Energy, OSTP Chief Advisor for Energy Policy, and then OSTP Chief Advisor for the Clean Energy Transition.
December 5: Robinson Meyer (Heatmap)
[5:00 p.m., 184 Myron Taylor Hall, Register]
Robinson Meyer is the founding executive editor of Heatmap. He was previously a staff writer at The Atlantic, where he covered climate change, energy, and technology.