Abstract
Climate change is the defining challenge of our time, with global consequences affecting the natural environment, basic livelihoods and nearly every sector of human activity. The presentation will briefly review the current scientific understandings that define climate change as a critical threat, and summarize where we stand in the enormous task of limiting global greenhouse gas emissions. This will be followed by an examination of the principal economic and policy tools that can be brought to bear to address the problem, with an emphasis on putting a price on carbon as a key option. A live demonstration of the "EnRoads" system dynamics model, developed by Climate Interactive, the MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative, and Ventana Systems, will illustrate the impact and effectiveness of pricing carbon pollution as a means to address climate change.
Biography
Charles Feinstein’s career focus has been on the energy, development and environment nexus. He commands core expertise in energy and environmental economics, renewable energy and climate change mitigation. Through the 1990’s Mr. Feinstein was the World Bank’s Team Leader for Climate Change.
Mr. Feinstein retired in 2016 as Director of the World Bank’s Energy and Extractives Global Practice. In this role he was responsible for the operations and day to day management of the World Bank’s combined energy, mining and oil and gas investment, analytical and advisory portfolio, valued at some $7 billion annually in loan and grant financing. He was additionally responsible for business development and ministerial level relations in the East Asia and Pacific, Europe and Central Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean regions.
Mr. Feinstein consults for the OECD, the World Resources Institute, the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank. An alumnus of UCLA, the East-West Center in Honolulu and the Harvard Executive Development Program, Mr. Feinstein is trained in electrical engineering and resource economics.
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Stan Roden J.D. is a retired civil trial lawyer with a background that includes criminal defense, two-term Santa Barbara County District Attorney, and mediator. He served on the CA Fair Political Practices Commission, taught numerous courses at local schools (Santa Barbara-Ventura Colleges of Law, SBCC, UCSB Extension, Antioch University), and served on many community boards and committees, most recently organizations focused on climate change, environmental sustainability, and criminal justice reform.
Stan served on the 2022-2023 Santa Barbara “Civil” Grand Jury. He currently serves on the local steering committee for Citizens Climate Lobby. He is a trained EnRoads Ambassador for Climate Interactive (MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative), which provides data-driven climate insights to decision makers with a goal to inspire meaningful climate action in legislative halls, boardrooms, communities, classrooms, and beyond.