Date and Time: Marth 30,2018  15:00-16:30

Venue: Multifunction Hall, IPE Building

Title: The Global Energy Challenge: Opportunities for Better Balancing Economic Growth and Environmental Quality in China

Abstract:

The global energy challenge requires balancing the need for inexpensive and reliable energy to foster economic growth, while limiting environmental and health damages and guarding against disruptive climate change. Michael Greenstone, will explore key energy trends and outline the market, policy, and technology choices that would help China and the world to meet the global energy challenge.

About the speaker:

Prof. Michael Greenstone

Milton Friedman Professor in Economics, the College, and the Harris School, University of Chicago 

Director, Becker Friedman Institute

Director, Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC)

Michael Greenstone is the Milton Friedman Professor in Economics, the College, and the Harris School, as well as the Director of the Becker-Friedman Institute and the interdisciplinary Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago. He previously served as the Chief Economist for President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers where he co-led the development of the United States Government’s social cost of carbon and on the Secretary of Energy's Advisory Board. Greenstone also directed the Brookings Institution’s Hamilton Project, which studies policies to promote economic growth, and has since joined its Advisory Council. He is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, fellow of the Econometric Society, and former editor of the Journal of Political Economy. Before coming to Chicago, Greenstone was the 3M Professor of Environmental Economics at MIT. 

Greenstone’s research, which has influenced policy globally, aims to uncover the benefits and costs of environmental quality and society’s energy choices. His current research is particularly focused on testing innovative ways to increase energy access and improve the functioning of environmental regulations around the world. Additionally, he co-directs the Climate Impact Lab that is producing empirically grounded estimates of the impacts of climate change, both globally and locally. 

Greenstone received a Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University and a BA in economics with High Honors from Swarthmore College.