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COLUMBIA GLOBAL
ENERGY SUMMIT 2025
April 9, 2025
9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Lerner Hall
Columbia University
Register
The Columbia Global Energy Summit 2025, hosted by the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University SIPA, is an annual event dedicated to thought-provoking discussions around the critical energy and climate challenges facing the global community. The Summit brings together some of the world’s foremost thought leaders and decision makers for thought-provoking conversations focused on the nexus of geopolitics, energy, security, and climate.
This year’s day-long Summit will address myriad issues at the heart of today’s complex geopolitical, environmental, and economic landscape. Speakers from around the world, including current and former government officials, financial industry executives, CEOs of major companies, leaders of civil society, and experts from academia will offer valuable perspectives on critical challenges facing the global energy and climate community.
Speakers will participate in high-level conversations focused on the energy and security demands of the growing artificial intelligence industry, critical minerals security and supply chain dynamics, the impacts of rising trade tensions, industrial policies, and Great Power competition on the energy sector and the clean energy transition, the challenges facing emerging and developing economies to meet rapidly rising energy needs and mobilize capital for clean energy investment, and today’s complex and fragmenting geopolitical landscape.
Editor-in-Chief, Foreign Policy
Learn MorePartner, Capital City Ventures
Learn MoreFounding Director, Center on Global Energy Policy; Professor, Columbia SIPA; Professor and Co-Founding Dean Emeritus, Columbia Climate School
Learn MorePartner, Emerson Collective
Learn MoreCEO, Sigma Lithium
Learn MoreNon-Resident Fellow; Co-Founder and CEO, Bohr Quantum
Learn MoreCEO, Oklo
Learn MoreFormer U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor
Learn MoreCEO, Climate Investment Funds
Learn MoreFormer Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Adviser for Energy and Investment, and Senior Advisor for Energy Security
Learn MoreClimate Reporter, The Washington Post
Learn MoreCo-CIO, Bridgewater Associates
Learn MorePresident and CEO, Global Center for Energy Analysis
Learn MorePresident and CEO, International Rescue Committee
Learn MoreCSO, Microsoft
Learn MoreDirector, Harvard Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Learn MoreChairman and CEO, Lazard
Learn MoreHead of Global Affairs, Appian Capital Advisory
Learn MoreCEO and Founder, Groq
Learn MoreInaugural Fellow
Learn MoreFormer European Commissioner for Energy
Learn MoreFormer U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor
Learn MoreChief Executive, Rio Tinto Group
Learn MoreFormer U.S. National Security Advisor
Learn MoreChairman and CEO, Institute of Energy Economics, Japan
Learn MoreGlobal Energy and Climate Innovation Editor, The Economist
Learn MorePartner, Head of Sustainability, Apollo Asset Management
Learn MoreVice Chairman, S&P Global
Learn MoreComing Soon
Please note: In-person registration is limited and we encourage you to sign up early to attend. Pricing for Columbia students, faculty, and staff is $25 per person through March 16. A Columbia University email address is required to register at this rate.
A virtual livestream will also be available.
April 9, 2025
9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Lerner Hall
Columbia University
Register
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.
For all media inquiries please email [email protected].
Non-Resident Fellow; Co-Founder and CEO, Bohr Quantum
The Honorable Paul M. Dabbar is a Non-Resident Fellow and former Distinguished Visiting Fellow at CGEP. He is also Co-founder and CEO of Bohr Quantum Technology, developing and deploying technologies for the emerging quantum internet. He is also on the board of Dominion Energy.
Prior to that in 2017, the U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed Mr. Dabbar to serve as the Department of Energy’s fourth Under Secretary for Science, where he served from 2017-2021. He managed several areas of the Department, as well as serving as the Department’s principal advisor on fundamental energy research, energy technologies, science, and commercialization of technologies. He managed over 60,000 people with a budget of $15 billion p.a. at over 100 sites, including managing the majority of the U.S. National Laboratories.
Areas of research he managed included basic energy sciences, nuclear and high energy physics, advanced computing, fusion, and biological & environmental research. He also led the largest environmental remediation program in the U.S., addressing the operations of nuclear weapons and commercial power production, completing several multi-billion dollar construction projects. He also led various new efforts to commercialize innovations arising from the National Labs. He co-led several new energy innovation efforts, including the Energy Storage Grand Challenge, as well as the passage and implementation of the National Quantum Initiative Act.
Mr. Dabbar was awarded in 2021 the Secretary of Energy’s senior DOE award, the James R. Schlesinger Medal, for leadership on developing energy technologies, discovery science, environmental management, and the National Quantum Initiative.
Mr. Dabbar is one of the few people who have traveled to both the geographic North and South Poles (90°N/90°S). He traveled to the North Pole by submarine to conduct environmental research while in the Navy, and to the South Pole in support of high energy physics astronomy and environmental missions of DOE at South Pole Station.
Prior to confirmation as Under Secretary, Mr. Dabbar worked in operations, finance, and strategy roles in the energy sector. As a Managing Director at J.P. Morgan, he had over $400 billion in transaction experience across all energy sectors. In addition, he had a senior leadership role for the company’s commodity trading business, including energy. Before joining J.P. Morgan, Mr. Dabbar served as a nuclear submarine officer. He has been a lecturer at the U.S. Naval Academy, and conducted research at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. Mr. Dabbar is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Mr. Dabbar has a bachelors from the U.S. Naval Academy, is a graduate of the U.S. Navy’s nuclear power and nuclear engineer programs, and a masters from Columbia University.
Former U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor
Jon Finer served as President Joseph R. Biden’s principal deputy national security advisor from 2021–25. Prior to joining President Biden’s staff, he was global head of geo-political and policy affairs at Warburg Pincus LLC and an adjunct senior fellow for US foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations. Before that, he was chief of staff and director of policy planning at the US Department of State, where he previously served as deputy chief of staff for policy. He also previously worked for four years at the White House, including as senior adviser to then-deputy national security adviser Antony Blinken and as special adviser for the Middle East and North Africa and foreign policy speechwriter for then-Vice President Biden. He first joined the Obama administration in 2009 as a White House Fellow, assigned to the Office of the White House chief of staff and the National Security Council staff.
Prior to entering government service, Finer was a foreign and national correspondent for the Washington Post, where he reported from more than 20 countries. He spent 18 months covering the war in Iraq, first embedded with the US Marines during the 2003 invasion and later based in Baghdad in 2005–06. He also covered conflicts in Gaza (2009), Russia/Georgia (2008), and Israel/Lebanon (2006), as well as the 2004 US presidential campaign, and the 2004 Major League Baseball playoffs.
Finer will simultaneously serve as a Carnegie Distinguished Fellow at SIPA's Institute of Global Politics.
CEO, Climate Investment Funds
Tariye joined CIF in March 2024 as Chief Executive Officer.
Prior to this appointment she was CEO of ARM-Harith Infrastructure Investments a leading Pan-African infrastructure fund investing in energy transition and climate resilient infrastructure. As well as the Co-Chair of the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative (VCMI), an international organization enabling end-to-end high-integrity voluntary carbon markets for climate action.
Tariye has global experience from the International Monetary Fund’s Western Hemisphere Department, the Boston Consulting Group,and Price Waterhouse Coopers. She has served in multiple climate and economic development organizations including as a member of the Climate Policy Initiative’s Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance, member of the Infrastructure Advisory Committee for the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investing (PRI); Member of the African Advisory Board of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ); member of the Board of Advisors - Columbia University Center on Global Energy Policy and member of the Advisory Council of the Millenium Challenge Corporation.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Amherst College, and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.
Director, Harvard Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Meghan L. O’Sullivan is the Jeane Kirkpatrick Professor of the Practice of International Affairs and the Director of the Geopolitics of Energy Project at Harvard University’s Kennedy School. She is also a Partner at the strategic consulting firm Macro Advisory Partners and is the Chair of the North American Group of the Trilateral Commission.
Meghan draws on her broad experience in government, business, diplomacy, and academia to shed insights into foreign policy and national security, energy markets, the transition to a net-zero global economy, and the geopolitics of that transition to benefit her students and colleagues, the U.S. government, global businesses, and the public debate.
Meghan has extensive experience in policy formulation and in negotiation. She is currently a member of Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s Foreign Policy Advisory Board. Between 2004 and 2007, she was special assistant to President George W. Bush and Deputy National Security Advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan during the last two years of her tenure. There, she helped run two strategic policy reviews: one on Afghanistan in the summer of 2006 and one on Iraq in late 2006 and early 2007, which led to the “surge” strategy. In her job at the National Security Council, Meghan was responsible for building consensus around new policy directions in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as overseeing their execution. Meghan spent two years in Iraq during which she helped negotiate the Transitional Administrative Law, which was the interim constitution of Iraq from 2004-2006, and conclude the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) and strategic framework agreement between the United States and Iraq. From July 2013 to December 2013, Meghan was the Vice Chair of the All Party Talks in Northern Ireland, which sought to resolve outstanding in the peace process. She also worked in the office of Policy Planning in the State Department under Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Meghan is on the board of Raytheon Technologies and the Board of Directors of the Council on Foreign Relations. She is also a member of the International Advisory Group for the British law firm, Linklaters, a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion and a consultant to companies. She is a trustee of the International Crisis Group and a member of the board of The Mission Continues, a non-profit organization to help veterans. She is also on the advisory committee for the Women’s Initiative at the George W. Bush Institute as well as Columbia University’s Center for Global Energy Policy. She was a Henry Crown Fellow from 2015-2017 and a Henry Luce Fellow from 1991-1992.
Meghan has written several books and many articles on international affairs, including her award winning 2017 book Windfall: How the New Energy Abundance Upends Global Politics and Strengthens America’s Power. She has been awarded the Defence Department's highest honor for civilians, the Distinguished Public Service Medal, and three times been awarded the State Department's Superior Honor Award. In 2008, Esquire Magazine named her one of the most influential people of the century. O’Sullivan earned a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University, a masters of science in economics, and doctorate in politics from Oxford University. She holds a Top Secret/SCI Security Clearance from the U.S. government.
Inaugural Fellow
David Sandalow is the Inaugural Fellow at the Center on Global Energy Policy (CGEP) and Co-Director of the Energy and Environment Concentration at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. He is the lead author of the Artificial Intelligence for Climate Change Mitigation Roadmap (Second Edition) (November 2024) and Guide to Chinese Climate Policy (October 2022).
Mr. Sandalow chairs the ICEF Innovation Roadmap Project. In that capacity, he has led development of roadmaps on artificial intelligence for climate change mitigation, low-carbon ammonia, biomass carbon removal and storage, industrial decarbonization, direct air capture and carbon dioxide utilization, among other topics.
Mr. Sandalow founded and directs CGEP’s US-China Program. He teaches a short course on the energy transition each year as a Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Schwarzman Scholars Program at Tsinghua University.
Mr. Sandalow has served in senior positions at the White House, State Department and U.S. Department of Energy. He came to Columbia from the U.S. Department of Energy, where he served as Under Secretary of Energy (Acting) and Assistant Secretary for Policy & International Affairs. Prior to serving at DOE, Mr. Sandalow was a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. He has served as Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans, Environment & Science and a Senior Director on the National Security Council staff.
Mr. Sandalow writes and speaks widely on energy and climate policy. In addition to the publications mentioned above, his writings include Can AI Transform the Power Sector?, CGEP (December 4, 2024) (lead author); Using AI to Craft Better Climate Policy, Wall Street Journal (July 20, 2023); Greenhouse Gas Emissions from the Food System: Building the Evidence Base, Environmental Research Letters (June 2021) (co-author); Finding and Fixing Food System Emissions: The Double Helix of Science and Policy, Environmental Research Letters (June 2021) (co-author); Food and Climate InfoGuide, CGEP (May 2021) (lead author); Energizing America, CGEP (September 2020) (co-author); Leveraging State Funds for Clean Energy, CGEP (September 2020) (with Richard Kauffman); Green Stimulus Proposals in China and the United States, CGEP (August 2020) (with Xu Qinhua); China’s Response to Climate Change: A Study in Contrasts, Asia Society Policy Institute (July 2020); China and the Oil Price War, CGEP (March 2020) (co-author); Decarbonizing Space Heating With Air Source Heat Pumps (December 2019, co-author); Electric Vehicle Charging in China and the United States (February 2019) (with Anders Hove); A Natural Gas Giant Awakens (June 2018) (lead author); The Geopolitics of Renewable Energy (2017) (CGEP and Harvard Kennedy School, co-lead author); Financing Solar and Wind Power: Lessons from Oil and Gas (CGEP, 2017, co-author); and The History and Future of the Clean Energy Ministerial (CGEP, 2016). Other works include Plug-In Electric Vehicles: What Role for Washington? (Brookings Institution Press, 2009) (editor), Overcoming Obstacles to U.S.-China Cooperation on Climate Change (Brookings Institution, 2009) (with Ken Lieberthal) and Freedom from Oil (McGraw-Hill, 2007).
Mr. Sandalow is a member of the Zayed Sustainability Prize Selection Committee, Electric Drive Transport Association’s “Hall of Fame” and Council on Foreign Relations. He is a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies and Distinguished Non-Resident Fellow at the Atlantic Council. Mr. Sandalow serves as a director of Enagás, SA and Fermata Energy. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School and Yale College.
Former European Commissioner for Energy
Kadri Simson most recently served as European Commissioner for Energy. In that role, she oversaw the European Union’s energy policies and worked to ensure that the bloc transitions to a more sustainable, secure, and competitive energy system.
Her priorities included the implementation of the European Green Deal, supporting the EU’s ambition to become the first climate-neutral continent by 2050, which includes boosting renewable energy and enhancing energy efficiency. Kadri was also responsible for Fit for 55, a legislative package designed to reduce EU emissions by at least 55 percent by 2030, compared to 1990 levels, through carbon pricing and cutting fossil fuel reliance. This included the first-ever hydrogen strategy—promoting the development of hydrogen as a clean energy carrier particularly for sectors in which direct electrification may not be feasible.
Kadri worked to maintain EU energy security following Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, to cut dependence on fossil fuels from Russia, and to strengthen energy diplomacy with trusted trading partners. She initiated the Ukraine Energy Support Fund, which helped repair and rebuild Ukraine’s energy sector and infrastructure damaged by Russian strikes.
Kadri previously served as the Estonian minister of economic affairs and infrastructure and was a member of the Riigikogu, the Estonian parliament. She holds a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Tartu and a master’s degree in political science from University College London.
Kadri Simson will simultaneously serve as a Carnegie Distinguished Fellow at SIPA's Institute of Global Politics.
Vice Chairman, S&P Global
Daniel Yergin is a highly respected authority on energy, international politics, and economics, and a Pulitzer Prize winner. He is Vice Chairman of S&P Global and Chairman of S&P’s CERAWeek conference, which CNBC has called "the Super Bowl of world energy". He has oversight for the Commodity Insight research at S&P.
Time Magazine said, "If there is one man whose opinion matters more than any other on global energy markets, it’s Daniel Yergin." The New York Times described Daniel Yergin as "America’s most influential energy pundit."
Dr. Yergin's new book The New Map: Energy, Climate and the Clash of Nations is described by NPR as "a master class on how the world works", in The Washington Post as "a tour de force of geopolitical understanding," and by The London Sunday Times as "a wonderful book". It has been translated into 14 languages.
A Pulitzer Prize winner, Dr. Yergin is the author of the bestseller The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World. The Quest, which The New York Times said it is "necessary reading for C.E.O.'s, conservationists, lawmakers, generals, spies, tech geeks (and) thriller writers." Bill Gates summed up his review of The Quest by saying, "This is a fantastic book."
Dr. Yergin is known around the world for his book The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil Money and Power, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. It became a number one New York Times best seller and has been translated into 20 languages.
Of Dr. Yergin’s book Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy, which has been translated into 13 languages, The Wall Street Journal said, "No one could ask for a better account of the world’s political and economic destiny since World War II." Both The Prize and Commanding Heights were made into award- winning television documentaries for PBS and BBC, which Dr. Yergin co-produced, co-wrote, and narrated.
Dr. Yergin is a member of the board of directors of the Council on Foreign Relations and a senior trustee of the Brookings Institution. He is a member of the Energy Advisory Council of the Dallas Federal Reserve. Dr. Yergin served on the U.S. Secretary of Energy Advisory Board under four U.S. presidents.
Among his honors, the Prime Minister of India presented Dr. Yergin with a "Lifetime Achievement Award" and the U.S. Department of Energy awarded him the first "James Schlesinger Medal for Energy Security." The University of Pennsylvania
presented him with the first Carnot Prize for "distinguished contributions to energy policy." Dr. Yergin was awarded the Gold Medal of the President of the Republic of Italy for combining "an understanding of the dynamics of the market with a broad view of the forces of geopolitics as he seeks to point the way to the positive outcomes for the world community."
Dr. Yergin is a member of the advisory board for the Columbia University Center on Global Energy policy. He is also member of the Indian Government’s Energy Think Tank and the advisory board of the MIT Energy Initiative.
Dr. Yergin holds a BA from Yale University and a Ph.D. from Cambridge University, where he was a Marshall Scholar.
This workshop will be conducted in two parts: Part one on February 12 from 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM EST, and Part two on February 13 from 2:00...
Chokepoints tells the epic story of how America turned the world economy into a weapon, upending decades of globalization to confront a new authoritarian axis—Russia, China, and Iran. In...
Women in Energy at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia SIPA is pleased to host Anne-Sophie Corbeau.
Women in Energy at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia SIPA is pleased to host Anne-Sophie Corbeau.
President Donald Trump has made energy a clear focus for his second term in the White House. Having campaigned on an “America First” platform that highlighted domestic fossil-fuel growth, the reversal of climate policies and clean energy incentives advanced by the Biden administration, and substantial tariffs on key US trading partners, he declared an “energy emergency” on his first day in office.
Can U.S. gas exports throw a lifeline to Europe without raising prices at home?
The incoming Trump administration should embrace a diverse energy mix, including renewables, for the sake of economic and national security.
