Exploring Opportunities and Challenges in Energy and Climate beyond the Global North
Join Young Professionals in Energy (YPE), Bay Area for "Exploring Opportunities and Challenges in Energy and Climate beyond the Global North", a panel featuring leaders from global climate organizations. Our discussion will explore how institutions are accelerating the global transition to clean energy, developing decarbonization strategies, and advancing clean energy solutions in the face of rising global political and economic uncertainty. Participants can gain insights into the current efforts to decarbonize developing economies and learn about opportunities for young professionals based in the SF Bay Area to get involved.
The event will include a panel session on the opportunities and challenges of doing international energy work. There will also be refreshments. We will finish the day with a networking session!
Speakers:
Linnan Cao, Senior Analyst, Global Methane @ Environmental Defense Fund
Agenda:
Doors open: 5:45pm
Panel begins: 6:30pm
Networking: 7:30pm
Meet our Speakers
Sonika Choudhary is a Principal at RMI, where she leads thought leadership, strategy, and initiatives related to grid reliability and resource planning, demand flexibility, and accelerating energy storage for the power grid in India. She brings over 15 years of experience in clean energy policy analysis, advocacy, and research across India and the United States. Before joining RMI, Sonika held various roles with leading utilities and renewable energy developers. As a principal at the EDF Innovation Lab (the R&D center for the EDF Group in North America), she managed the energy markets research portfolio. Prior to that, she worked as a resource planner with the City of Palo Alto Utilities and held analytical roles in Grid Innovation, and Energy Procurement and Policy teams at Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E). Sonika holds a master’s degree in sustainable energy systems from the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi).
Neil Chin is a Senior Analyst at CPI, based in San Francisco. He is primarily focused on designing, evaluating, and scaling innovative solutions that accelerate global climate investment. Neil leads monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) of the UK Climate Public Private Partnership (CP3), a market mechanism that leverages private equity to mobilize finance towards low-carbon climate-resilient enterprises in emerging markets. He also supports the Climate Finance Tracking program by developing artificial intelligence/machine learning-enabled tools to measure and raise climate ambition among public development banks. Additionally, Neil draws on financial modeling and impact assessment expertise to accelerate deployment of blended finance vehicles through the Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance. Prior to joining CPI, Neil worked with World Resources Institute (WRI), researching national and sub-national pathways towards net zero targets. He was also formerly a research assistant with the Northwestern Workforce Science Project, where he utilized machine learning and Big Data to examine linkages between higher education decisions and job market outcomes. Neil received his master’s degree from the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) and completed undergraduate studies at Northwestern University and the London School of Economics (LSE).
Linnan Cao is a Senior Analyst at the Environmental Defense Fund where she leads the methane work to advance Asia-Pacific region policies as well as research and analytics. She works with international institutions and agencies to advocate at the regional, country and international levels for stringent oil and gas emissions regulation. Linnan has over a decade of experience in energy and climate. Before her current role, Linnan worked on policies and regulations at the state and federal level on resource adequacy, transportation electrification, energy efficiency and carbon market. She also worked on international development projects in areas of energy access and climate finance while in Germany.
Special Thank You
We would like to thank the Blum Center for Developing Economies, University of California, Berkeley for hosting this event.
About YPE
YPE SF Bay Area is a local chapter of the global Young Professionals in Energy nonprofit network, which includes more than 40,000 members across 40 chapters. Our chapter alone has over 4,000 members. We facilitate the advancement of young professionals in the energy sector by providing opportunities for professional networking and knowledge sharing. We also host community and student events as part of our organization’s ongoing commitment to social and educational responsibility.
Become a member of YPE by signing up for our free newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn.
Interested in sponsoring one of our upcoming events? Reach out to our board at ype.sfbayarea@gmail.com.