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Fugitive methane emissions from the energy sector have become frontpage news over the last five years. Both the US and EU have developed legislative strategies to combat methane...
The year 2024 ended with a sobering milestone: it was officially the hottest year ever recorded. That pattern of extremes continues around the world, especially in Southern California,...
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About Us
We are the premier hub and policy institution for global energy thought leadership. Energy impacts every element of our lives, and our trusted fact-based research informs the decisions that affect all of us.
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.
CGEP is pleased to host the second annual Energy Opportunity Forum.
This forum is hosted by our Energy Opportunity Lab (EOL), which was launched at COP 27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt in 2022. EOL aims to catalyze opportunities for improved life chances through energy via actionable research, strategic convenings, community collaborations and equity-focused practical and policy solutions in order to eradicate energy insecurity in historically disadvantaged communities across the US and enable energy for development globally.
The second annual Energy Opportunity Forum will feature distinguished leaders from government, academia, industry, and civil society.
Join us again this year as we learn about private sector leadership in the African energy transition, energy for healthcare and livelihoods in refugee communities, and the role of utilities in advancing energy justice in the United States.
Speakers & Moderators
Jason Bordoff
Founding Director, Center on Global Energy Policy; Professor, Columbia SIPA; Professor and Co-Founding Dean Emeritus, Columbia Climate School
Dr. Juliana Bol
Assistant Professor, Program on Forced Migration and Health, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
Beth Colleton
President, bedari collective
Dr. Diana Hernández
Managing Director of Domestic Programs, Energy Opportunity Lab
Assistant Secretary-General and CEO, United Nations Global Compact
Dr. William Pizer
President and CEO, of Resources for the Future
Dr. Tony Reames
Associate Professor, Tishman Professor of Environmental Justice, University of Michigan School of Environment and Sustainability
Jane Roschen
Regulatory Analyst, California Public Utilities Commission
Suzanne Russo
Fellow and Director, Environmental Justice Initiative, Resources For the Future
Vivek Shastry
Senior Research Associate
Dr. Mark Toney
Executive Director, The Utility Reform Network
Agenda
9 - 9:05 a.m.
Welcome remarks
Speakers
Jason Bordoff
Founding Director, Center on Global Energy Policy; Professor, Columbia SIPA; Professor and Co-Founding Dean Emeritus, Columbia Climate School
9:05 - 9:30 a.m.
Fireside Chat: Accelerating Energy for Development in Africa
Moderators
Jason Bordoff
Founding Director, Center on Global Energy Policy; Professor, Columbia SIPA; Professor and Co-Founding Dean Emeritus, Columbia Climate School
Speakers
Andrew Herscowitz
CEO of the M300 Accelerator, Rockefeller Catalytic Capital
9:30 - 10:15 a.m.
Energy for Healthcare and Livelihoods in Refugee Communities
Moderators
Vivek Shastry
Senior Research Associate
Speakers
Dr. Juliana Bol
Assistant Professor, Program on Forced Migration and Health, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
Itonde Kakoma
President, Interpeace
David Mozersky
President and Co-Founder, Energy Peace Partners
10:15 - 11:00 a.m.
Private Sector Leadership in the African Energy Transition
Moderators
Andrew Kamau
Co-Director of the Energy Opportunity Lab
Speakers
Tshepidi Moremong
Chief Operating Officer, Africa 50
Sanda Ojiambo
Assistant Secretary-General and CEO, United Nations Global Compact
Dr. William Pizer
President and CEO, of Resources for the Future
11:00 - 11:20 a.m.
Break
11:20 - 12:05 p.m.
Role of Utilities in Advancing Energy Justice in the United States
Moderators
Dr. Diana Hernández
Managing Director of Domestic Programs, Energy Opportunity Lab
Speakers
Beaumont Morton
Social Justice Program Officer, ConEdison
Jane Roschen
Regulatory Analyst, California Public Utilities Commission
Suzanne Russo
Fellow and Director, Environmental Justice Initiative, Resources For the Future
Dr. Mark Toney
Executive Director, The Utility Reform Network
12:05 - 12:25 p.m.
Fireside Chat: Energy Equity in Action
Moderators
Dr. Diana Hernández
Managing Director of Domestic Programs, Energy Opportunity Lab
Speakers
Dr. Tony Reames
Associate Professor, Tishman Professor of Environmental Justice, University of Michigan School of Environment and Sustainability
12:25 - 12:30 p.m.
Closing Remarks
Speakers
Beth Colleton
President, bedari collective
Registration
This event will be hosted in person in New York City and live-streamed via Zoom.
Advance registration is required. Upon registration, you will receive a confirmation email. The event will be recorded and the video recording will be added to our website following the event.
This event is open to press, and registration is required to attend. For media inquiries or requests for interviews, please contact [email protected].
For more information about the event, please contact [email protected].
CGEP AT CLIMATE WEEK 2024
Past Event
September 27, 2024
9:00 am - 12:30 pm
The Forum at Columbia University
601 W 125th St, NY
Founding Director, Center on Global Energy Policy; Professor, Columbia SIPA; Professor and Co-Founding Dean Emeritus, Columbia Climate School
Jason Bordoff is the Founding Director of the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, where he is a Professor of Professional Practice. He is also on the faculty of the Columbia Climate School, where he is Co-Founding Dean Emeritus.
He previously served as Special Assistant to President Barack Obama and Senior Director for Energy and Climate Change on the Staff of the National Security Council. Prior to that appointment, he held senior policy positions on the White House’s National Economic Council and Council on Environmental Quality. Earlier in his career, he was a scholar at the Brookings Institution, served in the Treasury Department during the Clinton Administration, and was a consultant with McKinsey & Company.
One of the world’s leading energy and climate policy experts, Bordoff’s research and policy interests lie at the intersection of economics, energy, environment, and national security. As a member of the Columbia SIPA faculty since 2013, he teaches and mentors the world’s future energy and climate leaders in government, business and civil society.
In 2013, Bordoff created the Center on Global Energy Policy (CGEP), which is now widely recognized as among the world’s leading energy policy research institutes, advancing evidence-based and actionable energy and climate solutions through research, dialogue, and education. (Learn more here.) In addition to serving as CGEP’s Founding Director, Bordoff co-led and created the nation’s first graduate school devoted to tackling climate change, the Columbia Climate School, from 2021 to 2023. Bordoff is a columnist for Foreign Policy Magazine and has authored numerous essays and articles for Foreign Affairs. He frequently publishes articles in leading outlets such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The Economist, and appears on NPR, CNN, NBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, CBS, and the BBC as a commentator.His Foreign Affairs article with Meghan O’Sullivan, "Green Upheaval: The New Geopolitics of Energy," was selected as one of the "Top Ten" print articles published in that journal in 2022.
Bordoff also has extensive experience advising the private sector and non-profit organizations. He is a Senior Advisor at Macro Advisory Partners, a geostrategic advisory firm. He chairs the Aspen Institute-Columbia Global Energy Forum and serves on numerous advisory boards and leadership councils, including the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Sustainable Energy for All at the United Nations, The Nature Conservancy of New York, Foreign Policy 4 America, the New York Energy Forum, and the World Economic Forum’s "Future of Energy Stewardship" and "Mobilizing Investment for Clean Energy in Emerging Economies" programs. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, the Oxford Energy Club, and the National Petroleum Council (a federally chartered advisory committee to the Secretary of Energy).
Bordoff graduated with honors from Harvard Law School, where he was Treasurer of the Harvard Law Review, and clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He also holds an MLitt degree from Oxford University, where he studied as a Marshall Scholar, and a BA magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Brown University.
Assistant Professor, Program on Forced Migration and Health, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
Beth Colleton
President, bedari collective
Dr. Diana Hernández
Managing Director of Domestic Programs, Energy Opportunity Lab
Andrew Herscowitz
CEO of the M300 Accelerator, Rockefeller Catalytic Capital
Itonde Kakoma
President, Interpeace
Andrew Kamau
Co-Director of the Energy Opportunity Lab
Andrew Kamau serves as the a Co-Director for the Energy Opportunity Lab, leading the lab’s projects outside of the United States. Andrew was the Principal Secretary for Petroleum and Mining in the Ministry of Petroleum and Mining, charged with technical undertaking on behalf of the Government of Kenya in the areas of Oil, Gas, and Mining. He has a wealth of experience in the energy sector having worked in energy trading, oil and gas operations, and the mining sector for over 30 years. Believing in steadfast leadership to deliver complex projects, Andrew has spearheaded several Government initiatives that have benefitted Kenyans. His vantage has allowed him insight on how to structure, negotiate, and navigate interventions that have lasting and positive impact. Among his greatest accomplishments in this regard, Andrew championed the rapid uptake of Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) as a primary cooking fuel and moving the per capita consumption from 3kg to 7.5kg in eight (8) years. This initiative contributed to reduction of households reliant on charcoal and firewood as a cooking fuel and reduced serious indoor pollution incidence among vulnerable women and children.
Andrew advocated for initiatives to shift the transportation of most refined petroleum products fromroad to rail and lake barges, thereby reducing costs and the carbon footprint. He oversaw the construction of a new rail siding, connecting the Kenya Pipeline Storage to the Port of Kisumu, allowing for the transportation of refined petroleum products by rail barges from Kenya to Port Bell in Uganda. Relatedly, he led the team working on the rehabilitation of the long defunct Nairobi-Nanyuki rail line, allowing for fuel, agricultural goods, and passengers to be transported after nearly 30 years’ absence.
In the mining sector, Andrew has championed transparency through implementation of data and technology driven solutions, with a focus on identifying and leveraging minerals that will be critical for the energy transition and for which the 4th Industrial revolution is reliant. From finalization of the cadaster system that forms the bedrock for transparency in licensing, to the acquisition of geological data, Andrew has provided leadership to ensure that the country is well-positioned to capitalized on its natural resource’s wealth.
Prior to his role in Government, Andrew assisted governments to conclude complex trading transactions in energy by structuring practical solutions that took into account local context and financial constraints. For instance, in the power sector in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Andrew successfully negotiated a contract to rehabilitate two (2) turbine groups at the Inga Hydroelectric Dam on the Congo River thereby paving way for commercial mining activity that benefitted both the Government and its private sector partner. His intuitive insight into the most critical inputs for successful ventures in the oil and gas sector allowed him to assist the DRC government with supply of over USD 60 Mn of refined petroleum products using insurance instruments issued by the Government of South Africa and backed by oil revenue from companies producing oil in the DRC. He also crafted interventions for supply of crude oil to the Ndola oil refinery in Zambia and refined products worth over USD 200 Mn to the TEMA oil refinery in Ghana with structures that did not require both Governments to issue payment instruments.
Through his life’s work, Andrew has applied himself to the energy sector’s challenges and opportunities on the Continent, noting that the resilience of developing economies in Sub Saharan Africa will depend on new thinking. He has participated as a thought leader on the energy transition conversation including encouraging approaches that balance the requirements of industrialization and climate change adaptation. He remains passionate about offering refreshing and non-traditional perspectives on the energy sector’s contribution to sustainable economic development.
Beyond contributions as a public servant and international energy sector specialist, Andrew has a passion for philanthropy and has served as chairman of the Komati Foundation, a non-profit organization in South Africa, working specifically with students and young professionals to nurture leadership skills and service ethics. For his public service to Kenya, Andrew was awarded the First Class, Order Chief of the Burning Spear (CBS) in 2016. In 2005, Global Pacific Partners awarded him the Africa Oil & Gas Deal Maker of the Year.
Tshepidi Moremong
Chief Operating Officer, Africa 50
Beaumont Morton
Social Justice Program Officer, ConEdison
David Mozersky
President and Co-Founder, Energy Peace Partners
Sanda Ojiambo
Assistant Secretary-General and CEO, United Nations Global Compact
Dr. William Pizer
President and CEO, of Resources for the Future
Dr. Tony Reames
Associate Professor, Tishman Professor of Environmental Justice, University of Michigan School of Environment and Sustainability
Jane Roschen
Regulatory Analyst, California Public Utilities Commission
Suzanne Russo
Fellow and Director, Environmental Justice Initiative, Resources For the Future
Vivek Shastry
Senior Research Associate
Dr. Vivek Shastry is a Senior Research Associate at the Center on Global Energy Policy, Columbia SIPA. His work focuses on issues of energy access, opportunity, and justice across India, Africa, and the U.S., supporting CGEP’s Energy Opportunity Lab and the India Program. He has published several peer-reviewed articles in diverse journals, contributing to the literature on global energy poverty, U.S. energy transition, and energy use in the built environment. In addition to interdisciplinary research, he brings many years of strategic planning, partnership building, and program implementation experience through his prior work with SELCO Foundation.
Dr. Shastry earned a PhD in Public Policy from the University of Texas at Austin, where his doctoral research focused on understanding the consequences of poor electricity at rural health facilities, and the impacts of adopting productive uses of renewable energy among rural entrepreneurs. He also holds master’s degrees in Sustainable Design, and Community and Regional Planning from the University of Texas at Austin, and a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from National Institute of Technology Karnataka, India.
The Center on Global Energy Policy (CGEP) at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs is pleased to host Tony Reames, Visiting Faculty Member at CGEP and Associate Professor at the...
Event
• CGEP Large Conference
1255 Amsterdam Ave., New York, NY 10027
Power Uptown will have three components: (1) Energy Opportunity Expo, (2) Energy Opportunity Teach-in, and (3) a Panel discussion with elected and appointed officials.
Event
• The Forum at Columbia University, 601 W 125th St, New York.
Kenya and South Africa have recently started moving toward an open access regime in their electricity sectors, while the US and India have been on this path for over two decades.
The world has committed to transitioning away from fossil fuels to avoid the most severe threats of climate change.[1] Communities across the United States rely on fossil fuel...
