Yale Energy Justice Speaker Series
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
Photo credits: Unseen Histories "Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C." Photographer unknown, colorized by Jordan J. Lloyd. U.S. Information Agency; Gonz DDL; Tim Mossholder; NASA
Watch the recorded lectures
Miss a lecture? Want to see one of them again? Many of them can be found on our YouTube channel:
Sign up for our newsletters!
Stay informed about future events in this series and beyond by signing up for our newsletters:
This program is a collaboration between:
