Are AI Datacenters a Threat to our Clean Energy Future? Local & Global Perspectives

Note: Registration via Humanity is REQUIRED to attend. Note: Additional speakers will be included and updated closer to the event. Join Pratt Institute’s Sustainable Environmental Systems program for our third annual just energy transition event during NYC Climate Week. Global and local experts will join in conversation across just energy challenges, solutions, and perspectives with a particular focus on the rapid expansion of energy-hungry datacenters powering artificial intelligence (AI). Experts working on local and global energy issues will come together to discuss new policy dynamics, systemic and historic barriers in realizing a true Just Transition, and how these new datacenters could get us off track. This timely discussion will happen during the UN General Assembly and NYC Climate Week 2026, where key climate and energy transition issues will be at the center of next steps for the sustainable development goals and the broader theme of this year’s Climate Week. Key themes of the conversation will include: decarbonization, climate finance, climate diplomacy, infrastructure, the path to net zero, water, tech and AI, incentives for transition, green economy, and the SDGs. The panel will be feature local and global perspectives in a conversation moderated by a recent Pratt SES alumna, Jen Hung: Panelists:  Martha Molfetas | Visiting Assistant Professor, Pratt Institute; Senior Policy Consultant & Writer: Martha Molfetas is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Pratt Institute’s Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment, where she teaches Environmental Economics. Martha is a senior climate and energy policy consultant, writer, and strategist with over 17-years of experience helping NGOs, think tanks, and businesses unpack climate, environmental justice, resource conflict, sustainable development, and global policy issues with organizations ranging from Dalberg Research to Transparency International, NRGI and Oil Change International to name a few. She was formerly a Senior Fellow working on just energy transition at New America. Her work has been published in: Current Affairs, The World Politics Review, The Global Policy Journal, Policy Mic, Common Dreams, and others. Summer Sandoval | Academic Coordinator, Visiting Assistant Professor, Pratt Institute & Community Investment and Implementation Director, USDN: Summer Sandoval is the Community Investment and Implementation Director at Urban Sustainability Directors Network (USDN), where she supports local governments and communities in navigating funding opportunities and realizing their projects to advance equitable climate action. Summer is also the Academic Coordinator and a Visiting Assistant Professor at Pratt Institute’s Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment, where she teaches Urban Energy Management. Summer has worked at the intersection of climate, environmental, and energy justice in community-based organizations and city government.   Rami Dinnawi | Program Director, North Star Fund: Rami Dinnawi is a Lebanese/Palestinian grassroots activist based in New York City. Informed by generational knowledge of people’s struggle for self-determination, Rami strives to ground his work within these historical legacies. He is currently serving as the NYC Program Director at North Star Fund. Prior to joining North Star Fund, Rami worked extensively in the New York environmental justice movement space, as the environmental justice campaign and policy manager at El Puente. Rami is currently serving on the Advisory Committee of the Tishman Environment and Design Center at The New School. With over a decade of organizing experience, Rami’s commitment extends beyond borders, as he actively engages with activism and movements on a global scale. Pierre Canet | Global Head of Public Affairs and Policy, Client Earth: Pierre leads ClientEarth’s Global Public Affairs and Policy team, overseeing the organisation’s influence on decision-makers to achieve the systems change pursued in its strategy across the world. Before joining ClientEarth, Pierre was the Executive Director of Advocacy at WWF in France where he worked for a decade leading campaigns and programs on a diversity of environmental issues, from climate and energy to nature and plastics, collaborating at multiple levels throughout the WWF’s global network. Prior to this, Pierre worked with the United Nations in New York on the preparation of the Rio+20 Summit and corporate climate engagement. He engaged significantly with activities around the Climate COP21 to influence the establishment of the Paris Agreement, and has substantial experience in building and developing high-impact activities from newly-established teams. Sponsored By: - Pratt Institute MS in Sustainable Environmental Systems - The Master of Science in Sustainable Environmental Systems (SES) is one of the nation’s most innovative, interdisciplinary, systems-based sustainability programs. This STEM certified degree program is designed to meet today’s increasing demand for environmental professionals, uniquely combining environmental science, sustainable design, and climate policy. Students learn the interdisciplinary skills and systems-thinking approach needed to assess contemporary environmental issues; catalyze innovative environmental problem-solving; uphold environmental and social justice; and engage diverse stakeholders in designing and developing sustainable communities. http://www.pratt.edu/gcpe-ses - Pratt Institute's Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment - Faced with climate change, systemic racism, and growing inequity, communities need forward-thinking approaches to urbanism now more than ever. Practice-based and rooted deeply in the network of communities we serve, our alliance of four graduate-level programs works to address these evolving threats, working in partnership to build asset-based solutions at the intersection of environment, equity, culture, and economy. www.pratt.edu/gcpe