PAIR Distinguished Lecture: Prof. Daniel M. KAMMEN, Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Energy and Climate Justice of Johns Hopkins University, delivers “Innovation and Cooperation for the Just Energy Transition”
PAIR Distinguished Lecture Series
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Date
26 Jan 2026
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Organiser
PolyU Academy for Interdisciplinary Research
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Time
14:30 - 16:00
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Venue
Senate Room (M1603), 16/F, Li Ka Shing Tower, PolyU (Seats will be arranged on a first-come-first-served basis) Map
Speaker
Prof. Daniel M. KAMMEN
Enquiry
PolyU Academy for Interdisciplinary Research info.pair@polyu.edu.hk
Summary
Abstract
The climate science, technology, and policy landscape we face today are hugely out of alignment. While the climate science community has highlighted the critical need for immediate action towards a 1.5 degree C (or, at one time we hoped, lower) global climate warming target, and while energy and transportation technologies are moving rapidly to enable that tremendously challenging goal, the US stands as a national denier of a path that requires immediate action on both the climate and justice transitions. Both large infrastructure choices and immediate daily decisions are needed. Sadly, every delay in moving the US to a productive, proactive position, makes achieving these goals less likely, or more costly. Immediate, pro-environment, inclusive growth, pro-business decisions are needed at the household, state, regional, national and global levels to put us on a sustainable path. I highlight a set of energy, transportation, and land-use modeling tools and policy opportunities that are consistent with the needed 1.5 degree Celsius objective that also meet social and environmental justice goals. The critical role of decision-making is highlighted through a series of technical, policy, and social justice opportunities. Recent events including the rise of a populist “Green New Deal” ethos, congressional debate over carbon pricing, and the role of environmental justice will be highlighted as critical, potentially 'last best chance' opportunities for climate sanity and meaningful support of much needed action.
Prof. Daniel M. KAMMEN
Member of U.S. National Academy of Sciences
Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Energy and Climate Justice
Johns Hopkins University, U.S.
Director of Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory (RAEL)
University of California, Berkeley, U.S.
Former Science Envoy of U.S. Department of State
Coordinating Lead Author of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that won Nobel Peace Prize (2007)
Daniel Kammen is the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Energy and Climate Justice in the Department of Civil and Systems Engineering (CASE), and the Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). He plays a leadership role in the Ralph O'Connor Sustainable Energy Institute (ROSEI). His laboratory website is https://engineering.jhu.edu/faculty/daniel-kammen/.
Kammen’s work is focused on energy innovation, decarbonization, energy access, and climate justice. He most recently served as Senior Advisor for Energy and Innovation at the US Agency for International Development (USAID: 2021 – 2022).
Kammen was appointed the first Environment and Climate Partnership for the Americas (ECPA) Fellow by Secretary of State Hilary R. Clinton in April 2010 and served as Science Envoy for Secretary of State John Kerry and President Barack Obama (2016- 2017).
His research is focused on the science and policy of decarbonized energy systems, energy access, and environmental justice. He has published more than 500 papers, which are available on his laboratory website, the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory (RAEL, http://rael.berkeley.edu). His research is currently focused on: decarbonization of power systems around the world; energy access and social justice; materials science for low-carbon economies; big-data approaches to clean transportation, and on the electrification of health facilities across Africa.
Kammen has founded or is on the board of over 10 companies, and has served the State of California and US federal government in expert and advisory capacities. Kammen was the First Chief Technical Specialist for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency at the World Bank (2010–2011).
Kammen was educated in physics at Cornell and Harvard and held postdoctoral positions at the California Institute of Technology and Harvard. Before moving to the University of California, Berkeley, he was Assistant Professor and Chair of the Science, Technology and Environmental Policy Program at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs.
Dr. Kammen has served as a contributing or coordinating lead author on various reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change since 1999. The IPCC shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.
Kammen serves on the Advisory Committee for Energy & Environment for the X-Prize Foundation. He is on the board of Native Renewables (Flagstaff, AZ); the Chabot Space and Science Center (Oakland, CA), The Human Needs Project/Kibera Town Center (Nairobi, Kenya).
Kammen was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2020.
Kammen was elected to the U. S. National Academy of Sciences in 2025.
He is a member of the Diversity Scholars Network,
https://lsa.umich.edu/ncid/engagement-opportunities/diversity-scholars-network.html
Dan Kammen & Claire Broido host the Energy Matters podcast, available on streaming services and directly at https://energymatters.world
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