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Columbia SIPA’s Center on Global Energy Policy and Institute of Global Politics has launched the Trade and the Clean Energy Transition (TCET) initiative to help decision-makers both within the U.S. and globally navigate the intersection of climate and trade objectives to help accelerate the transition to a net-zero economy. TCET is funded with initial support from the BMW Foundation and Breakthrough Energy.
To deliver cutting-edge analysis and convene policymakers and stakeholders to help identify cooperative approaches that leverage the climate/trade nexus to promote decarbonization and economic resilience in an increasingly fragmented global marketplace.
Director, Program on Trade and the Clean Energy Transition
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Trevor Sutton, a Senior Research Associate at CGEP, focuses on the intersection of trade, climate, and industrial policy and leads the center’s Program on Trade and the Clean Energy Transition. Trevor previously served as Research Director of the Remaking Global Trade for a Sustainable Future Project and was a co-author of a seminar report on trade system reform, the Villars Framework for a Sustainable Trade System. He has also served in various roles at the Center for American Progress, most recently as a Senior Fellow for Energy and Environment, and the United Nations. Prior to these positions, Trevor served as a judicial clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Trevor has a BA from Stanford University, a JD from Yale Law School, and an MPhil from Oxford University, where he was a Marshall Scholar.
Global Fellow
Elliot Diringer is a Global Fellow at the Center on Global Energy Policy (CGEP), where he directs the Center’s International Dialogue on Climate and Trade.
Mr. Diringer came to CGEP from the U.S. Department of State, where he served as a Senior Policy Advisor to Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry. In that capacity, he led planning for the Leaders Summit on Climate hosted by President Biden in April 2021 and leader-level meetings of the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate. He also led the team establishing the Energy Transition Accelerator, an innovative carbon crediting platform to speed the transition from coal-based to clean power in developing countries.
Mr. Diringer first focused on climate change as a journalist covering the 1992 Earth Summit for the San Francisco Chronicle. He joined the Clinton White House in 1997, serving as communications director at the Council on Environmental Quality and as a deputy press secretary and deputy assistant to the president.
Prior to returning to government, Mr. Diringer was executive vice president of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES), formerly the Pew Center on Global Climate Change. He led the Center’s international program from 2001 to 2021, directing dozens of international climate policy studies and regularly convening lead climate negotiators from key countries. He led the influential Climate Dialogue at Pocantico and the Toward 2015 dialogue, which helped build consensus on the conceptual underpinnings of the Paris Agreement.
Mr. Diringer’s publications include the articles Letting go of Kyoto and Climate change: A patchwork of emissions cuts in the journal Nature. His public presentations include a recent talk at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government on Taking Stock of the International Climate Effort.
Mr. Diringer is a graduate of Haverford College and was a 1995-96 Nieman Fellow at Harvard University.
Adjunct Research Scholar
Sagatom Saha is an Adjunct Research Scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University SIPA. He is an expert on the geopolitics of the global energy transition and U.S. competitiveness in clean energy technologies. In addition to his role at CGEP, he is a senior associate in the energy transition practice at Macro Advisory Partners. Sagatom previously worked on cleantech competitiveness at the International Trade Administration in the U.S. Department of Commerce and served as a special advisor in the Office of the U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate. In this role, he was chief of staff to Secretary Kerry’s clean energy and innovation team and led on cleantech competitiveness, nuclear energy, industrial decarbonization, Ukraine and Eastern Europe, and India. Sagatom was also a Fulbright researcher in Kyiv, Ukraine, where he advised the Ukrainian Parliament and cabinet ministries on strategies to advance energy reform. Sagatom previously helped direct the Council on Foreign Relations’ Program on Energy Security and Climate Change, managing its geopolitics portfolio.
Sagatom has written more than 50 op-eds and policy papers in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Axios, Scientific American, and Fortune, among others. He has been named a Grist 50 Fixer, New America Asian American and Pacific Islander Next Generation National Security & Foreign Policy Leader, Stanford U.S.-Russia Forum Fellow for Climate and Environment, and Climate Security Fellow for the Climate and Security Advisory Group. Sagatom holds a master’s degree from the Princeton School of Public Affairs and a bachelor’s degree in international studies and business administration from American University.
Adjunct Research Fellow
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Dr. Chris Bataille has been involved in energy and climate policy analysis for 27 years as a researcher, energy systems and economic modeler, analyst, writer, project manager, managing consultant, and founding partner. His career has been focused on the transition to a globally sustainable & secure energy system, more recently technology and policy pathways to net-zero GHG emissions by all sectors by 2050-‘70 to meet the Paris Agreement goals. He is an Adjunct Research Fellow at Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy working on the Carbon Management Research Initiative, Associate Researcher at Institut du Développement Durable et des Relations Internationales (IDDRI.org), and Adjunct Professor at Simon Fraser University. He was a Lead Author for the IPCC WGIII AR6 Industry Chapter, Technical Summary and Summary for Policymakers. He manages an ongoing global review project to review technology and policy options for net-zero decarbonization of heavy industrial sectors (NetZeroIndustry.org).
Senior Research Scholar
Jonathan Elkind is a fellow and senior research scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy. Elkind came to the Center after a long and distinguished career devoted to energy and environment policy in the private and public sectors. From 2009 to 2017, he worked on international energy and climate issues at the United States Department of Energy, helping to coordinate energy policy in the Obama Administration and leading climate and energy programs with key global partners. He departed DOE as Assistant Secretary for International Affairs.
Before his service in the Obama Administration, he founded Eastlink Consulting, LLC where he guided corporate and non-profit clients on commercial energy projects in Europe and Eurasia, and he served as a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, researching international energy security issues.
Earlier in his career, Elkind focused on energy, environment and economic issues in the post-Soviet nations in a variety of posts with the Joint Global Change Research Institute, the U.S. National Security Council, Office of the Vice President of the United States, the Department of Energy, and the Council on Environmental Quality.
Elkind holds a Master of Business Administration in Strategy and International Business from the R.H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, a Master of Arts in Russian History and Certificate in Soviet Studies from the W. Averell Harriman Institute, and a Bachelor of Arts with Distinction in History from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is a Director on the Board of Infineon Technologies, LLC. He is also a distinguished associate with the Energy Futures Initiative; an advisor to GTI Energy; and a senior advisor with WestExec Advisors, a Washington, DC-based strategic advisory firm.
Senior Research Scholar
Dr. Gautam Jain is a Senior Research Scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy (CGEP) of Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). He focuses on the role of financial markets and instruments—including thematic bonds, blended finance structures, and carbon markets—in the energy transition, with an emphasis on emerging economies.
Dr. Jain has an extensive background in the financial industry where he covered emerging markets as a portfolio manager and strategist. He has worked at asset management firms and an investment bank, including The Rohatyn Group, Barclays Capital, and Millennium Partners. He has helped manage emerging market local debt and hard-currency bond portfolios, encompassing currencies, interest rate instruments, and sovereign credits. He specialized in portfolio construction and asset allocation incorporating macroeconomic, policy, and political developments in emerging markets.
He holds a Ph.D. in Operations Research from Columbia University. He also has an M.S. in Industrial Engineering from Iowa State University and a B.Tech. in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. He is a CFA charter holder, a Cornell EMI Fellow, an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, and a consultant for the United Nations to support the workstream of the Global Investors for Sustainable Development (GISD) Alliance on “Tackling Local Currency Risk”.
He has co-authored publications in the Journal of Derivatives, the Journal of Banking and Finance, the Journal of Applied Probability, Probability in Engineering and Informational Science, and the International Journal of Production Economics. He has also contributed chapters for the 2020 and 2021 Cornell EMI Annual Reports.
Senior Research Scholar
Dr. Noah Kaufman is an economist who has worked on energy and climate change policy in both the public and private sectors. Noah is Senior Research Scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University SIPA. He is also an External Fellow in the Transition Economics Program of the Bezos Earth Fund
Under President Biden, Noah served as a Senior Economist at the Council of Economic Advisers. Under President Obama, he served as the Deputy Associate Director of Energy & Climate Change at the White House Council on Environmental Quality. At World Resource Institute, he led projects on carbon pricing, the economic impacts of climate policies, and long-term decarbonization strategies. Previously, he was a Senior Consultant in the Environment Practice of NERA Economic Consulting.
Noah received his BS in economics from Duke University, and his PhD and MS in economics from the University of Texas at Austin, where his dissertation examined optimal policy responses to climate change.
Founding Partner, YvY Capital; Former Director General, WTO
Learn MoreSenior Managing Director, Evercore ISI
Learn MoreDean Emerita and Professor at Columbia University in the City of New York
Learn MoreFormer Minister of Trade, Former Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, Indonesia
Learn MoreUniversity Professor, Columbia University
Learn MoreFounding Partner, YvY Capital; Former Director General, WTO
Roberto Azevêdo was the sixth Director-General of the WTO. His appointment took effect on 1 September 2013 for a four-year term. In February 2017, WTO members reappointed him for a second term, which began on 1 September 2017. He stepped down as Director-General a year before the expiry of his mandate.
Senior Managing Director, Evercore ISI
Ambassador Sarah Bianchi is a senior managing director and chief strategist of international political affairs and public policy at Evercore ISI.
Ambassador Bianchi has nearly 30 years’ experience in both the public and private sector. Most recently, she served as deputy U.S. Trade Representative from 2021 to 2024, overseeing critical trading relationships across Asia and Africa. Her portfolio covered all aspects of trade, including sustainable supply chains, onshoring-shoring, energy transition, implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPs and Science Act, tariffs, technology, global trade agreements, labor and the environment.
In addition to public service, Ambassador Bianchi has served in several private sector roles. Prior to becoming deputy USTR, she led the U.S. public policy research team at Evercore ISI from 2019 to 2021, where she was ranked No. 3 by Institutional Investor. She also served as head of global policy development at Airbnb, managing director at BlackRock, and investment analyst at Eton Park Capital Management.
Ambassador Bianchi graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University and served on the Senior Advisory Committee at the Institute of Politics at Harvard University from 2004 to 2021. She also served as the chair of the Biden Institute’s Policy Board, and is a Distinguished Visiting Follow at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.
Dean Emerita and Professor at Columbia University in the City of New York
Merit E. Janow is an internationally recognized expert in international trade and investment. She has extensive experience in academia, government and business, and has been involved with the Asia-Pacific region for her entire life.
Janow served as Dean of the faculty of Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) from July 2013 through December 2021. As Dean, she strengthened the school by launching new programs and initiatives, for example in technology and public policy – with a focus on cyber security and the digital economy – entrepreneurship and policy, and central banking and financial policy, among other areas. She also has grown SIPA’s faculty in numerous areas; supported the creation of new research centers; and completed two capital campaigns.
For the past 27 years, Janow has been a professor at both SIPA and Columbia Law School. She teaches graduate courses in the digital economy, international trade and investment law and policy, comparative antitrust law and policy, and China in the global economy. She has held a number of leadership positions at the University. She is co-director of the APEC Study Center at Columbia Business School and previously served as Chair of the Committee for Socially Responsible Investing which oversees the proxy voting of shares owned by the Columbia University endowment. Janow has written three books and numerous articles and frequently speaks before business, policy, and academic audiences around the world.
Professor Janow has had three periods of government service. In December 2003, while at Columbia University, she was elected by the WTO Membership as one of the seven Members of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Appellate Body, which is the court of final appeal for adjudicating trade disputes between the 164 member nations of the WTO. She was the only North American member and the first female to serve on the Appellate Body. In the course of her four years of service, she reviewed more than 30 appeals covering a diverse range of trade disputes, including technology, subsidies, agriculture, investment and trade remedies. From 1997-2000, Janow served as the Executive Director of the first international antitrust advisory committee to the Attorney General and Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust of the US Justice Department. The key recommendations were implemented on an international basis and led to the establishment of the International Competition Network (ICN). From 1989 to 1993, prior to joining Columbia University, Janow served as Deputy Assistant USTR for Japan and China in the Executive Office of the President. In this capacity she was responsible for developing and implementing U.S. trade policies towards Japan and China; and leading the negotiations for a dozen bilateral trade agreements.
Janow has had extensive corporate and nonprofit board experience and currently serves on several corporate boards along with Japan Society and the National Committee on US China Relations. She was recently appointed in December 2021 as a member of a World Bank High Level Advisory Group on Sustainable and Inclusive Growth. Janow is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission. She previously served as a member of the international advisory council of China’s sovereign fund, the China Investment Corporation (CIC). Early in her career, Janow was a corporate lawyer specializing in cross-border mergers and acquisitions with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in New York. She grew up in Tokyo, Japan, and speaks Japanese. She has a JD from Columbia Law School where she was a Stone Scholar and a BA in Asian Studies from the University of Michigan.
Former Minister of Trade, Former Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, Indonesia
Mari Pangestu was the World Bank Managing Director of Development Policy and Partnerships, March 2020-2023. Prior to joining the Bank Mari Pangestu served as Indonesia’s Minister of Trade from 2004 to 2011 and as Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy from 2011 to 2014.
She has had vast experience of over 30 years in academia, second track processes, international organizations and government working in areas related to international trade, investment and development in multilateral, regional and national setting.
Most recently, Ms Pangestu was a Senior Fellow at Columbia School of International and Public Affairs, as well as Professor of International Economics at the University of Indonesia, honorary professor at the Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University and a Board Member of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Jakarta.
Ms. Pangestu is highly regarded as an international expert on a range of global issues and has served on a number of boards and task forces such as, the Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in Washington D.C and commissioner for the Low Carbon Development Initiative of Indonesia as well as an executive board member of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). She has also served on the board of a number of private sector companies.
She obtained her bachelor’s and master’s degree in economics from the Australian National University, and her doctorate in economics from the University of California at Davis.
University Professor, Columbia University
Joseph E. Stiglitz is an American economist and a professor at Columbia University. He is also the co-chair of the High-Level Expert Group on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress at the OECD, and the Chief Economist of the Roosevelt Institute. Stiglitz was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2001 and the John Bates Clark Medal in 1979. He is a former senior vice president and chief economist of the World Bank and a former chair of the U.S. Council of Economic Advisers.
In 2000, Stiglitz founded the Initiative for Policy Dialogue, a think tank on international development based at Columbia University. In 2011 Stiglitz was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Known for his pioneering work on asymmetric information, Stiglitz's research focuses on income distribution, climate change, corporate governance, public policy, macroeconomics and globalization. He is the author of numerous books including, most recently, People, Power, and Profits, Rewriting the Rules of the European Economy, and Globalization and Its Discontents Revisited.
Recent hard-won climate progress has accelerated the fracturing of the decades-old consensus on trade and globalization. In the past two years, the United States has deployed subsidies, domestic content requirements, high tariffs, and other once-taboo economic tools to pursue its decarbonization goals and build clean energy supply chains. During this same period, the EU has instituted a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), relaxed its rules around subsidies, and is now considering a full-throated pivot to ambitious industrial policy.
Elsewhere in the world, countries like Brazil, Turkey, and Japan are taking measures to address trade imbalances in clean technology goods and in carbon-intensive industries. These policy shifts have produced a raft of recriminations, countervailing measures, and WTO challenges that have strained relations between both friendly and adversarial nations and intensified the frustrations of developing countries that the global economic order is titled against them.
The emerging tensions between climate ambition, economic development, and trade and industrial policies presents an opportunity to forge consensus around much-needed reforms. Policymakers’ ability to navigate this new environment of fragmentation and protectionism will significantly affect the pace of the energy transition. A key element of this project will be constructive engagement with a range of perspectives across geographies and levels of economic development.
Columbia University is well-positioned to meet the vital need for more research and expert engagement on the trade/climate nexus as policymakers around the world endeavor to remake their own trade policies and the global trade system more broadly in support of a sustainable economy. CGEP is likewise a recognized leader on the geopolitics of the energy transition and has already become a go-to resource for policymakers navigating the trade tensions associated with the rise of green industrial policy.
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