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January 30, 2025 • 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm est

Can AI Help Reduce Emissions of Greenhouse Gases?

Please join the Center on Global Energy Policy (CGEP) at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs for a special webinar "Can AI Help Reduce Emissions of...

Webinar • Zoom Webinar
Can AI Help Reduce Emissions of Greenhouse Gases?

Biography

Leonardo Beltran is a Non-Resident Fellow and former Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Columbia University´s Center for Global Energy Policy, a non-resident fellow at the Institute of the Americas, and an executive fellow of the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary. He is also serving his second three-year term on the Administrative Board of Sustainable Energy for All.

Mr. Beltran has had a distinguished 13-year career in public service in the government of Mexico, including as the longest serving Deputy Secretary of Energy (2012-2018). In this capacity, he led the Ministry´s coordination of Mexico´s National Energy Strategy, policy document that served as the foundation for the energy reform of 2013. He was also on the Board of Directors of Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), Mexico´s national oil company and the world´s 10th largest oil producer and was alternate Chairman of the Board of Directors of Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE), Mexico´s national power utility and a Global 500 company. Mr. Beltran also chaired the boards of the national laboratories of the energy sector (Mexican Petroleum Institute; National Institute of Electricity and Clean Energies; National Nuclear Research Institute), and presided the board of a billion usd R&D trust funds that created the Mexican Centers for Innovation on Energy (biofuels, CCS, geothermal, ocean, solar, and wind), the largest clean energy technology innovation networks in Latin America, and invested in the biggest talent development effort in the energy sector in the country.

Before serving as Deputy Secretary of Energy, Mr. Beltran held other leadership positions in the Ministry of Energy, including Director-General for Information and Energy Studies and Director for International Negotiations.

Mr. Beltran is currently also a member of the Advisory Board of the Just Transition Initiative (partnership between the Climate Investment Funds and the Center for Strategic and International Studies); a member of the Board of Fundación Por México (NGO focused on providing educational services to underserved communities); a member of the IPS International Association (global news agency); a member of the expert´s network and the Global Futures Council of the World Economic Forum; and a mentor of the Global Women´s Network for the Energy Transition. He is also consulting the Inter-American Development Bank, the Latin American Energy Organization, and the World Bank on issues surrounding the energy transition.

Mr. Beltran is a leading expert in the energy transition, he has been named several times as one of the most influential leaders in the energy sector in Mexico and personality of the year in renewable energy (including in 2018).

He holds a Master’s in Public Administration in International Development from Harvard Kennedy School and a Bachelor of Science in Economics from Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM).

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