[E&E seminars] Tomorrow - Dan Esty: Toward an Innovation-Centered Climate Change Strategy

[Jameson Twomey]

Toward an Innovation Centered Climate Change Strategy

Daniel Esty, Yale University

March 31

3:00-4:30 PM

E19-319

Abstract

Prospects for a global agreement on climate change to supplant the  
Kyoto Protocol are now badly bogged down. The success of the  
international negotiations is deeply intertwined with the U.S.  
domestic political conversation around climate change.  Unfortunately,  
the current legislative efforts seem unlikely to win the necessary  
majorities in the House and Senate. It is now time to think about  
alternative strategies. In this talk, I will argue that we need to put  
innovation at the center of our approach to climate change. Critical  
to this strategy realignment is a focus on getting a clear price  
signal on greenhouse gas emissions and a package of additional  
incentives that help to engage the full creative spirit of the country  
and the world in the effort to advance energy efficiency, explore  
alternative sources of power generation, and establish whether carbon  
capture and storage can be done cost effectively. This talk will  
examine the policy process that will be necessary to put forward such  
an innovation-centered approach to climate change.

About the Speaker

Daniel C. Esty  is the Hillhouse Professor of Environmental Law and  
Policy at Yale University.  He holds faculty appointments in both  
Yale’s Environment and Law Schools. He also serves as the Director of  
the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy (www.yale.edu/envirocenter) 
  and the Center for Business & Environment at Yale (www.yale.edu/ 
CBEY ).  Professor Esty is the author or editor of nine books and  
numerous articles on environmental policy issues and the relationships  
between environment and corporate strategy, competitiveness, trade,  
globalization, governance, and development.  His recent prizewinning  
book, Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to  
Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage, argues that  
pollution control and natural resource management have become critical  
elements of marketplace success and explains how leading-edge  
companies have folded environmental thinking into their core business  
strategies.  Prior to taking up his current position at Yale,  
Professor Esty was a Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for  
International Economics (1993-94), served in a variety of senior  
positions on the US Environmental Protection Agency (1989-93), and  
practiced law in Washington, DC (1986-89). Professor Esty spent the  
2000-01 academic year as a Visiting Professor at INSEAD, the European  
business school in Fontainebleau, France.  In 2002, Professor Esty  
received the American Bar Association Award for Distinguished  
Achievement in Environmental Law and Policy for “pioneering a data- 
driven approach to environmental decision making” and developing the  
global Environmental Sustainability Index.  He served four years as an  
elected Planning and Zoning Commissioner in his hometown of Cheshire,  
Connecticut. He sits on the Board of Directors of Resources for the  
Future and the Connecticut Fund for the Environment.
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