“Yale Energy Justice Speaker Series” (Center for Business and the Environment)

The Yale Center for Environmental Justice (YCEJ) and the Yale Center for Business and the Environment (CBEY) are delighted to join forces to raise awareness of energy justice and bring the voices of experts in the field to the public!

 

As part of this seminar offered for credit at the Yale School of the Environment, we are making the lectures open to the public. This series explores the multifaceted and exciting role of justice in the clean energy transition.

 

In late 2022, President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law, capping a run of new, climate and energy related funding totalling almost $2 trillion; and 40% of the benefits of that funding (presumably far greater than $2 trillion) are supposed to flow to “disadvantaged communities”. Internationally, the UN Conferences of the Parties over the last few years have also sought to institutionalize financial and policy mechanisms meant to fill an estimated $500 billion/year gap in clean energy finance to the Global South.

 

As we enter 2024, energy justice is a burgeoning field of real-world practices driving beyond equity and remedies into major domestic and international financial instruments as well as on-the-ground energy projects of significant magnitude.

 

Drawing on Yale’s faculty and practitioners from the field, this energy justice seminar will give attendees detailed insight into the latest thinking and practice and help prepare students to work in this field. The seminar will be inherently interdisciplinary, drawing from multiple disciplines, including but not limited to law, sociology, anthropology, and economics. It will cover topics relating to energy justice in the areas of policy and regulation, community advocacy, legal implications, health implications, and private sector innovation.

 

This seminar is taught by Michel Gelobeter, Executive Director at the Yale Center for Environmental Justice.

 

 

Schedule:

 

Jan 22 - Introduction to the topic of Energy Justice – Prof. Gelobter

 

Jan 29 - Community Advocacy and Organizing - Denise Abdul-Rahman, NAACP Environmental Climate Justice Team

 

Feb 5 - Energy Justice + Renewable Energy Development – Mr. Zaid Ashai, CEO of Nexamp

 

Feb 12 - The IRA + Energy Justice – Speaker forthcoming

 

Feb 19 - Energy Justice + Public Health – Surili Patel, VP, Metropolitan Group and Yale Center on Climate Change and Health Advisory Board

 

Feb 26 - Energy Justice + Historical Inequities of Indigenous Land Dispossession– Justin Farrell, Yale University

 

March 4 - Linking Funding to Justice: Community Benefits Agreements - Elizabeth Perera, Sr. Advisor DOE Loan Programs Office

 

March 11 and 18 - No seminar

 

March 25 - Energy Poverty + Global Energy Justice Issues, Narasimha Rao, Yale University

 

April 1 - no seminar

 

April 8 - Intersection of Energy Justice Labor/Workforce Issues - Vincent Alvarez, Pres. of the NYC Central Labor Council

 

April 15 - Energy Justice in Philanthropy – speaker TBD

 

April 22 - The Future of Energy Justice – Dr. Gelobter