Climate change has emerged as the defining issue of the twenty-first century, a root cause of social and economic upheavals that will affect multiple generations. In order to meet the 1.5°C global warming target set by the Paris Agreement and minimize the impacts of climate change, global carbon dioxide emissions should reach net zero by 2050. What will it take for us to stabilize and reduce the concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere? This conference will explore the science behind the net-zero goals, optimal pathways to achieving the targets, the political and behavioral constraints, and the role of markets. The conference will include presentations by leading climate scientists, economists, and financial industry experts.

Co-sponsored by the Julis-Rabinowitz Center for Public Policy & Finance, the Center for Policy Research on Energy and Environment, the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, and the High Meadows Environmental Institute.

All sessions will be held virtually via Zoom webinar.

Registration Open !                                      Conference Details

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2022 | 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM (EST)

3:15 - 3:20 PM | Opening Remarks & Introduction

• Atif Mian, JRCPPF Director & John H. Laporte, Jr. Class of 1967 Professor of Economics, Public Policy and Finance

3:20 - 4:30 PM | Session 1: Why Net Zero 2050?

• Zelina Zaiton Ibrahim, Associate Professor of Environmental Management and Statistics, IPCC and University Putra (Malaysia)
• Kristie Ebi, Professor, Center for Health and the Global Environment, University of Washington
• Leon Clarke, Research Professor; Acting Director of the Center for Global Sustainability, University of Maryland
• Detlef Van Vuuren, Professor in Integrated Assessment of Global Environmental Change, Utrecht University; Senior Researcher, PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency
• Moderator: Michael Oppenheimer, Albert G. Milbank Professor of Geosciences and International Affairs and the High Meadows Environmental Institute; Director of the Center for Policy Research on Energy and the Environment (C-PREE), Princeton University

4:40 - 5:30 PM | KEYNOTE

• Embracing Net Zero Ambition
• Barbara Buchner, Global Managing Director; Executive Director for Climate Finance, Climate Policy Initiative
• Moderator: Chris Greig, Senior Research Scholar, Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, Princeton University

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2022 | 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM (EST)

9:45 - 10:55 AM | Session 2: How do we reach the 2050 targets?

• Jesse Jenkins, Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, Princeton University
• Ilissa Ocko *13, Senior Climate Specialist, Environmental Defense Fund
• Jessika Trancik, Professor at the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society, MIT
• Gunnar Luderer, Professor of Global Energy Systems Analysis, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
• Moderator: Simon Levin, James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University

11:00 AM - 12:10 PM | Session 3: How can we shift politics, behaviors, and attitudes?

• Connie Hedegaard, (former) EU Commissioner for Climate
• Sara Kapnick ’04, Managing Director, Senior Climate Scientist & Sustainability Strategist, JP Morgan Chase & Co.
• Felix Creutzig, Professor for Sustainability Economics of Human Settlements, Mercator Institute and Technical University Berlin
• Moderator: Elke Weber, Gerhard R. Andlinger Professor of Energy & the Environment, Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs, Princeton University

12:20 - 1:10 PM | KEYNOTE

• Managing Climate Change-Related Financial Risk
  Patrick Bolton, Barbara and David Zalaznick Professor of Business, Columbia Business School
  Moderator: Denise Mauzerall, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Public and International Affairs, Princeton University  

1:20 - 2:30 PM | How can we leverage markets to achieve the Net-Zero 2050 targets?

• Gernot Wagner, Clinical Associate Professor, New York University
• Mar Reguant, Associate Professor of Economics, Northwestern University
• Christian Gollier, Professor of Economics and Executive Director of the Toulouse School of Economics
• Moderator: Atif Mian, John H. Laporte, Jr. Class of 1967 Professor of Economics, Public Policy & Finance; Director, Julis Rabinowitz Center for Public Policy & Finance, Princeton University

2:30 PM | Closing Remarks

(All times are EST.)