As the United States leaves the Paris Agreement, how will the leadership vacuum be filled? Will China continue to surge ahead, tackling air pollution and investing in renewable energy? Will India soon abandon its commitments, favoring coal development over clean air? If choices that individual countries make in regard to their energy mix have planet-wide consequences, does abandoning Paris signal the end of the US-led international order? What role does vulnerability reduction play in the new...

As scientists have slowly come to grasp the seriousness of climate change, many have begun to doubt that humans can transition away from fossil fuels fast enough to avoid serious ecological collapse on land and in the oceans. Some researchers have suggested that we should take unusual measures to prevent these outcomes. Among the more familiar of these “moonshots” is the plan to cool the planet by seeding its atmosphere with sun-reflecting aerosols. But more recently, Russian scientists have...

The principal solution to climate change challenges lies with a transformation to an all-of-the-above low carbon energy future. There is no going back. Clean energy technologies have become remarkably competitive in just the last few years. The US is already on a trajectory for meeting our Paris target, with rapid growth in natural gas and renewable power generation and energy efficiency leading the way. Other major economies with comparable or even stronger Paris targets don’t have the same...

The colorful story behind the latest energy bonanza in this red state is the story of entrepreneurs, environmentalists, ranchers, and politicians of all stripes who developed public policy that unleashed Texas’s renewable growth. Long known for oil and gas, Texas is dominated by a conservative legislature and governor’s office. But politics is local, business is business, and perception is not always reality. In fact, Texas currently leads the nation in wind development—with more than three...

Social entrepreneurs Anne Kelly of Ceres and Rebecca Onie of Health Leads discuss how they’ve made unlikely allies in unlikely places, despite working on hot-button issues in a difficult political climate. By meeting people, practitioners, policymakers, and leaders where they are, Ceres and Health Leads have made considerable progress on two of the most urgent and universal issues of our time: climate and clean energy, and making meeting social needs a standard practice of health care.

Inspired and grounded in the new film from From the Ashes, this conversation is about moving forward from a 19th century innovation that’s not serving us well in the 21st century. How is the free market moving away from coal? How can communities that depend on coal mining and coal-fired power plants recover after layoffs and plant closures? Hear from coal country citizens who are at the center of the energy transition. Speakers: Mary Anne Hitt, Ben Gilmer, Andrew Revkin

Many of the people doing today’s most consequential environmental work — restoring America’s grasslands, wildlife, soil, rivers, wetlands, and oceans — would not call themselves environmentalists; they would be too uneasy with the connotations of that word. What drives them is their deep love of the land — they feel a moral responsibility to preserve their heritage and ensure that their families and communities will continue to thrive. The new book and documentary, Rancher, Farmer, Fisherman,...

Can a transformative solution built on the conservative principles of free markets and limited government save the planet? Now that the United States is backing out of the Paris climate accord, many believe that any significant reduction to greenhouse gas emissions must be led by the business community. Can such a business-led effort to promote carbon dividends — carbon taxes whose revenues are rebated to citizens — pave the way for a much-needed bipartisan climate breakthrough? Speakers:...

We’ve been exploring the concept of climate change since 1988. Yet the problem continues to elude traditional solutions. Maybe the problem is it’s not a problem — it’s an emergent planetary force, and we have to build a new relationship to it. Science has made it clear that it’s a two-way relationship. What have we learned over the last 30 years, and what will the next 30 years bring? Speakers: Jacquelyn Gill, Andrew Revkin, Michael Greenstone, Varun Sivaram

The high seas comprise more than 40 percent of the surface of our planet and 60 percent of the surface of the ocean, yet are largely ungoverned and unprotected. The team at the forefront of the efforts to create fully protected marine reserves – essentially bringing “America’s best idea” of national parks to the ocean, convene on our stage to outline their bold new idea to protect the world’s last great conservation frontier – the high seas – and adjacent areas around the world. Come dive in...

Governor Hickenlooper believes that States are the laboratories of Democracy, especially when it comes to a secure and clean energy future. Join him and Aspen Institute’s Elliot Gerson for a discussion on how Colorado can help curb the impact of a changing climate while creating stable jobs across the State. Underwritten by The Nature Conservancy. Speakers: John Hickenlooper, Elliot Gerson