DAY 1

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 14th

    • Greg Morrisett - Jack and Rilla Neafsey Dean and Vice Provost, Cornell Tech

  • The first carbon caps under New York City’s world-leading building emissions law will come into effect in 2024. What solutions for energy efficiency, electrification, and carbon capture are leading the way? And what comes next, as we raise the bar on low-embodied-carbon construction?

    • Act Now: Future Scenarios and the Case for Equitable Climate Action

      • Jennifer Holk - Strategy Senior Manager, Monitor Institute by Deloitte

      • Vijayta Rao Narang - Climate Fund Program Manager, CIV:LAB

    • The Pilot Policy Lab

      • Cara Eckholm - Fellow, Urban Tech Hub at Cornell Tech

      • Daria Segal - Vice President, Initiatives at New York City Economic Development Corporation

    • T.R. Ludwig - CEO, Brooklyn SolarWorks & Brooklyn Solar Canopy

  • Electrification is driving soaring demand for power. How are new energy storage solutions, from building-scale batteries to hydrogen electrolyzers and fuel cells making it possible to balance short-term and long-term flows of renewable power? And what role can “earthshots” — from the dull, dirty, and dangerous work of undergrounding utilities to geothermal heat and electric power generation—play in building a more renewable resilient grid?

    • Sustainable Pathways to More Representative Climate Tech Leadership

      • Moderator: Dr. Stephen Hammer - Incoming CEO, The New York Climate Exchange

      • Dr. Kevin Reed - Interim Director of Academic, Research, and Commercialization Programs, The New York Climate Exchange

      • Ben Furnas - Executive Director, The 2030 Project, Cornell University

      • Neil Padukone - Executive Director, NYC Manufacturing and Industrial Innovation Council (MaiiC), NYC Mayor’s Office of Talent & Workforce Development

    • Decarbonizing at an Urban Scale: Understanding the embodied carbon footprint of cities through digitization

      • Gregory Haley - Associate Principal, Henning Larsen

      • Santiago Fernando Orbea - Senior Associate, Henning Larsen

      • Kritika Kharbanda - Lead Sustainability Specialist, Henning Larsen

    • Decentralized Technologies for Climate Action and Regenerative Economies

      • Isha Varshney - Head of DeFi, Celo Foundation

      • Nakul Padalkar - Assistant Professor, Georgetown University

      • Ryan Thomas - Visiting Assistant Professor at Wentworth Institute of Technology, Chief Sustainability Officer, Simbiotica Finance

      • Charlie Moore - Investor, Advisor, Climate Finance Entrepreneur

      • Helena Rong - Founder & Design Principal, CIVIS

    • Modou Cham - Senior Business Development Manager, Circuit Transit

  • Computer vision has ceded the hype crown to generative AI, but as costs fall and capabilities grow, smart cameras are spreading widely through the transportation network. From airports and seaports, to community-based efforts to stem the tide of delivery vans, to bus-borne traffic enforcement cameras that speed sustainable commuters along, learn how computer vision is decarbonizing the way we move people and goods.

DAY 2

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 15th

    • Jerry Hultin - Chairman & Co-founder, Global Futures Group and Chair, New York Academy of Sciences

    • James Anderson - Head of Government Innovation Programs, Bloomberg Philanthropies

    • Nneka Sobers - Assistant Director of Product Development at the Urban Tech Hub, Cornell Tech

    • Maria Gotsch - President & CEO, Partnership Fund for New York City

    • Rohit T. (Rit) Aggarwala - Commissioner of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection and the City’s Chief Climate Officer

  • From digital twins that track urban systems in near real-time, to content generators that visualize low-carbon futures with a click, computational sustainability is changing the way we design and manage cities. But what does it take to deploy these tools and where are they most effective?

  • Decarbonization demands a deeply diverse population and labor force. Yet millions who left the workforce during the pandemic have not returned. A generation of young people are struggling to close achievement gaps aggravated by remote schooling. And these gaps aren’t evenly spread—they have disproportionately harmed groups still paying the price of past environmental injustices. How will we close these gaps to educate, recruit, and train workers to invent, deploy, and maintain the technologies for climate-positive cities?

    • The Future Workforce: From fear of AI to fear of missing out

      • Giacomo Bagarella - Director, HR&A Advisors

      • Lucas Hernández - Workforce Skills Lead, Microsoft

      • Becca Rosen - Director, HR&A Advisors

    • Accelerating Hardware Climate Innovation in New York City

      • Nse Esema - Senior Vice President, Green Economy at NYCEDC

      • Richard Bourgeois - Manager, Innovation at NYSERDA

      • Gabe Leferts - Economic Development Project Manager , Offshore Wind, NYCEDC

    • Localizing Urban AI: Developments in Latin America

      • Anthony Townsend - Urbanist in Residence, Cornell Tech

      • Soledad Guilera - Professor, School of Government, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella

  • As the climate tech market matures, the finance driving it is being forced to evolve. The Inflation Reduction Act has already seen $220bn of movement in climate tech in just one year and we are seeing record venture capital in the space, but to reach ambitious climate goals, innovative and diverse financing models aimed at deploying more climate tech are also emerging. But how much of it is dry powder and what are LPs expecting in return? What does the VC market for climate tech look like over the next decade and how do some of the other mechanisms supporting innovation work?