Practitioners Forum
The Practitioners Forum connects top systems change researchers and analysts with corporate decision makers and strategists that seek to drive more transformative change in the climate and energy space. We work with this network of leading-edge knowledge partners to identify and fill any knowledge or action gaps, and to share and apply best practices on how to drive transformative systems change.
The Practitioners Forum takes place as a virtual convening held four times a year. Each convening features a combination of speaker presentations, interviews, and group discussions.
Upcoming Events
March 2023
details coming soon
May 2023
details coming soon
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Past Events
November 9, 2022: S-Curve Drivers
What makes some innovations improve and scale faster than others? What policy or strategy implications does this have?
Speakers:
Greg Nemet, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Andrew Jones, Climate Interactive
This session focused on how the S-curve growth of key “green” innovations can be accelerated given the time limit for achieving a 1.5°C future. Our first speaker, Greg Nemet, shared insights from his research on solar PV: generally, smaller technologies get more iterations of development, and are thus more likely to improve quickly. To make future technologies go even faster, policy support will be key. His talk was followed by a presentation from Drew Jones on En-ROADS, a climate simulator that provides policymakers and other key stakeholders to easily observe how different policy levers can affect the speed of change.
To make these insights even more useful for policymakers and corporates, participants highlighted the need to increase awareness, for instance by linking them to topics of interest, such as economy-wide impacts, or the likelihood of success of specific innovations.
July 20, 2022: Transition Frameworks
What are the different ways transition frameworks can be used? What is needed to improve their use?
Speakers:
Simon Sharpe, UNFCCC Climate Champions
Joel Jaeger, WRI
We opened the inaugural session of the Practitioners Forum with a broad discussion among researchers on the different types of systems frameworks and their uses. The group was fairly well split between those working on current state analysis, projection and tracking (with a more quantitative and modeling focus), and inspiration, story-telling and strategy (focused on identifying agency, roles and opportunities, with roadmaps and engagements for action).
The group also discussed several critical knowledge and action gaps to inspire future work. For example, the quality of research and knowledge in this space would improve greatly with accessible and flexible models capable of delivering actionable insights. There is also a need for a stronger narrative on disruption, use of more accessible language (less academic jargon), and closer direct engagement to catalyze action among policymakers and corporate decisionmakers.