Dance to the Revolution

Never before have we confronted the environmental and energy challenges with such urgency, and never before has U.S.-China cooperation on clean energy in both public and private sector been more crucial. This is the reason why Harvard, MIT and our friends on the West Coast serendipitously decided to hold a conference on this issue on the same date: Harvard’s China Energy & Environment Conference and Berkeley-Stanford Cleantech Conference.

Register now for China Energy & Environment Conference, or come to Harvard’s Northwest Science Building on April 9th and register on site!

For China Energy & Environment Conference, we will have the wonderful Susan Tierney, Managing Principal of Analysis Group, as our keynote speaker. Among her impressive list of experiences and credentials, she is a former Assistant Secretary for Policy at the U.S. Department of Energy, chairperson of the board of the Energy Foundation and a co-chair of the National Commission on Energy Policy. In Massachusetts, Sue is previously Secretary of Environmental Affairs, Chair of the Board of the Massachusetts Water Resources Agency, Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities, and executive director of the Massachusetts Energy Facilities Siting Council. She also serves on the China Sustainable Energy Program’s Policy Advisory Council, which, for the past decade, has been supporting China’s policy efforts to increase energy efficiency and promoting the use of renewable energy sources. As a Director for the conference, I can’t think of a better person to address our audience on U.S. – China nexus in renewable energy and we are really lucky to have Sue coming.

In addition, we will have Secretary Steven Chu addressing us through a video-feed from Stanford and have a Q & A session with our audience. The title of his talk would be “Sputnik 2.0? The Pursuit of Green Jobs in China and the U.S.”. As United States Secretary of Energy, Dr. Steven Chu is charged with helping implement President Obama’s ambitious agenda to invest in clean energy, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, address the global climate crisis, and create millions of new jobs.  Dr. Chu is a distinguished scientist and co-winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics (1997). He has devoted his recent scientific career to the search for new solutions to our energy challenges and stopping global climate change – a mission he continues with even greater urgency as Secretary of Energy.

We are going to have six panels, five in English and one in Chinese. They are:

Rural Environmental Issues: Coping with Rapid Development

This panel will address issues in environmental systems management in China’s rural areas, drawing connections between public health and the urgent need to begin cleaning and protecting rural environments.

Moderator

• Charles Chester, Lecturer in Environmental Studies, Brandeis and Tufts University

Panelists

• Diane Gold, Associate Professor, Department of Environmental Health, Harvard University
• Saleem H. Ali, Director of the Institute for Environmental Diplomacy and Security, The Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, University of Vermont
• Rachel Stern, Harvard Society of Fellows, Harvard University
• Ma Haibing, China Program Manager, WorldWatch Institute

The Future of Transportation: Motor Vehicles

This panel will address current transportation policies in China and the opportunities and challenges facing the private sector as it seeks to deploy clean vehicles in the domestic market.

Moderator

• Henry Lee, Senior Lecturer at Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School

Panelists

• Feng An, President and Executive Director, Innovation Center for Energy and Transportation (ICET)
• Hongyan He Oliver, Former Research Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School
• Pricilla M. Lu, Chairwoman, Zap Jonway Electric Vehicle

Shifting from Coal: The Future of Renewable Electricity

This panel will address the efficacy of the Chinese government’s subsidies and incentives for clean technology, focusing on renewable electricity.

Moderator

• Joel Eisen, Professor of Law, University of Richmond

Panelists

• David Mohler, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Duke Energy
• David Lam, Managing Partner, WI Harper
• Mitchell Dong, Serial Entrepreneur and CEO, Mohave Sun Power
• Chris Dann, Managing Partner of Energy Practice, Booz & Compan

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