Welcome back to the Sunstone Way.
Next week, heavy hitters from California will head to New York City to be part of the Climate Week NYC 2025 – and I’m going too!
This is the second year Sunstone has been a sponsor of the important event, and we will be hosting another prestigious, invite-only panel/event as part of the California Climate Leadership Forum.
We’re calling the panel I’m moderating From Red Tape to Green Light: Fast-Tracking Climate Solutions Through Smart Policy. It is part of a three-panel series featuring California heavy hitters. Many thanks to The Climate Registry for putting this day together.
Sharing the P3 Way
Here’s how the Climate Registry defines the Red Tape Panel: “How to break down bureaucratic barriers, support and scale emerging technologies, and adopt more agile approaches to deploying climate solutions that can turn climate and affordability challenges into opportunities.”
I would like to think that we will focus on creating public-private partnerships as we break down bureaucratic barriers. California is leading the way when it comes to revamping regulations to support green technology instead of bogging the process down.
More specifically, I want to focus on ways government and private industry can work together to meet our rapidly growing energy needs in an affordable, reliable manner. The ongoing shift to clean energy generating electricity is key to California’s – and the world’s – efforts to slow global warming.
It’s All Related
You’ve heard me say before that creating needed infrastructure of all kinds, including energy generation and transmission, is all about how to build it, and how to pay for it. The other panels at the California Climate Leadership Forum address this issue.
Paying for climate-changing infrastructure is the topic of the first panel, Innovating Investment: Building the Next Era of Climate Finance. It will take innovative approaches to make large-scale infrastructure projects like clean energy production happen, and I’m betting that those public-private partnerships will play a key role.
The third panel talks about building to make communities more resilient in the face of climate risks. If this sounds like a response to the Eaton and Palisades wildfires, that’s because it is. But communities across the country face the same dangers from flooding, hurricanes and more. There is a great desire to plan before the disaster occurs.
West Coast Cache´
Last year’s California Climate Leadership Forum was a hot ticket, and the invite-only event was packed. When you get a look at the packed list of distinguished, innovative California speakers from government and the private sector, it’s easy to see why.
I have to brag about the presence of my friend, Lena Gonzalez, who happens to be the California State Senate Majority Leader. An expert in enviro-friendly legislation and regulation, Lena will be on my panel to talk about solutions.
Accompanying her from Sacramento and the state capitol are California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara, State Transportation Secretary Toks Omishakin, CalEPA Secretary Yana Garcia, and California Air Resources Board Chair Liane Randolph. That was the list more than two weeks before the event; more officials are expected to attend (rumor has it someone with the initials GN is considering it).
Private industry and the nonprofit/environmental world are rolling out their big guns, too. Pedro J. Pizarro, CEO and President of Edison International, is on the speakers list. Carla Peterman, executive vice president and Chief Sustainability Officer at PG&E is confirmed, as is Executive Director of Programs at California Forward Nuin-Tara Key, and Douglass Sims, managing director of Green Finance & Economic Development for the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Connections for Community
To say that I am honored to be in the same room with these and other luminaries is an understatement. But what I am really excited about is the opportunity to partner with these experts to find ways to make our communities, our country a better place to live.
The California Climate Leadership Forum can and will make a difference through partnerships creating innovation. After all, that’s the Sunstone Way.
And remember, always be a Sunstone!
John Keisler
CEO & Managing Partner
Sunstone Management, Inc.
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