During the Fall and Winters semesters, GW’s Environmental and Energy Management Institute conducted a number of high impact symposia in key environmental and energy issues on the world stage.
On August 29, 2022, EEMI, in partnership with the GW Law school and the Environmental law institute, hosted a program called “Judiciary Education on Climate Change in the Lehman Auditorium of the Science and Engineering Hall. The purpose of the program is to explain in a non-partisan and objective way the science behind climate change in order to help judges (mostly Federal judges) deal with the rising caseloads on climate change they are facing. The program was kicked off by SEAS Dean John Lach. Speakers were Randall Abate, Assistant Dean for Environmental Law; Dr. Rachael Jonassen, Director of the EEMI Climate Change and Greenhouse Gas Management Program; Scott Sklar, Energy Director of GWs Environment and Energy Management Institute; and Donna Attanasio, leader of GW’s Energy Law Program and Sustainable Energy Initiative.
In New York City on September 21, 2022, Dr. Mukes Kapilashrami, EEMI Director of Operations, moderated a panel on Transition to the Green Economy at a seminar conducted by the Business Council for International Understanding. The panel focused on creating sustainable market-oriented solutions meant to empower people, support the planet, and promote equitable access to educational tools by setting achievable business sustainability goals. The program can be seen at Agenda - BCIU Seminar.
On September 29, 2022, EEMI conducted a seminar featuring: Dries van Wagenberg, Principal at Fuel Right. Dries is a commodities trader who trades materials globally, including fuels. The seminar included a discussion of national and global security impacts of energy access, prices, and controls, which are enormous and magnified by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
On October 14, 2022, EEMI Energy Advisor Dr. Stratos Tavoulareas participated on a panel on Systems Resilience, organized and moderated by EMSE Professor Caitlin Grady in the Lehman Auditorium. The event covered climate change, geopolitical strife, and extreme events that regularly compromise essential infrastructure and services, along with approaches to build a resilient future to reduce, absorb, and recover from the impacts of disruption. A flyer on the program can be seen at Stratos - Systems Resilience.
On October 27, 2022, EEMI hosted a seminar on Our Energy Future featuring Timothy Kim, CEO of ibV Energy. The event, which discussed the impacts of the recently enacted Inflation Reduction Act on climate change and related topics, was covered by The Energy Collective Group, which posted a summary of the event that can be seen on the Energy Central website.
On November 10, 2022, EEMI conducted a seminar on “The Future of Nuclear Energy,” featuring Argentine physicist and nuclear expert Dr. Alfredo Caro. Dr. Caro recently was Program Director at the National Science Foundation, responsible for the Materials Science and Engineering Centers. Before that he was the Director of the Atomic Center and Balseiro Institute in Bariloche, Argentina, and previously worked for the European Fusion Program at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland and the DOE Fusion Program at Lawrence Livermore National labs. Dr. Caro indicated that the most severe challenges we face today are global warming and the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine, threatening the energy and food supply. At a time when technology changes at the fastest rate in all human history, the role nuclear energy is called to play in the de-carbonization of electricity production is unclear, with voices for and against its expansion.
On November 16-18, 2022, EEMI leaders Alex Beehler, Ed Saltzberg and Mark Pollins participated in a series of events with Dr. Damilola Olawuyi, Professor and Associate Dean for Research at the Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Doha, Qatar, including the Inaugural J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Distinguished Lecture on Global Climate Change and Energy Law organized by Laws School Associate Dean for Environmental Law Randy Abate. These events are leading to a potential partnership between the EEMI and the Qatar Environmental and Energy Research Institute at the Hamad Bin Khalifa University.