Green Newton

Sunday, March 26 at 4pm. In-Person and Online.

The Elizabeth Howe Lecture Committee and the Climate Action Team of First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church in Lexington present The Climate Crisis and the Energy Transition: Perfection Meets Pragmatism, a conversation between two of the nation’s most authoritative experts on energy, Dr. Ernest J. Moniz and Dr. Robert C. Armstrong.

The event will be held in person in Parker Hall at First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church in Lexington (7 Harrington Road, Lexington), as well as live-streamed via the First Parish website. Masks are encouraged.

Presenters:

• Ernest J. Moniz is the 13th United States Secretary of Energy (2013-2017), and the Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics and Engineering Systems emeritus at MIT. His broad responsibilities as Secretary included advancing President Obama’s all-of-the-above energy strategy, and promoting American leadership in science and clean energy technology innovation.

Prof. Moniz represented the U.S. at major international conferences and negotiations on the future of energy and climate change. He is currently President and CEO of the Energy Futures Initiative (EFI), a nonprofit organization working on climate and energy technology issues, which he co-founded in 2017 and is Special Advisor to the President of MIT. At MIT Prof. Moniz leads the Roosevelt Project, which aims to chart a path forward through the transition that minimizes worker and community dislocations and enables at-risk communities to sustain employment levels by taking advantage of the economic opportunities present for regional economic development.

• Professor Robert C. Armstrong directs the MIT Energy Initiative, an Institute-wide effort at MIT linking science, technology, and policy to transform the world’s energy systems. Armstrong chaired MIT’s The Future of Energy Storage study (2022) and was a member of MIT’s study groups, Future of Solar Energy (2015) and Future of Natural Gas (2011).