UChicago at Aspen Ideas: Climate 2025

The Institute for Climate and Sustainable Growth served as the official academic thought partner for Aspen Ideas: Climate, which took place in Chicago on July 20-22, 2025.

The collaboration involved key elements of Aspen Ideas: Climate Chicago’s programming, integrating the University of Chicago’s global expertise and cutting-edge research into the agenda. Together, the partners co-curated sessions on critical topics such as climate finance, carbon removal, and carbon markets, among others. The Institute also hosted the opening reception on the UChicago campus on Sunday, July 20.

About Aspen Ideas: Climate

Aspen Ideas: Climate is designed to offer the public a chance to interact, learn, and collaborate with thinkers and do-ers whose actions are critical to addressing our collective future around the realities of a changing climate. This event will assemble global, regional, and local policy makers, scientists, business and NGO leaders, energy experts, artists, young leaders, members of the public, and others for dialogues aimed at educating, inspiring, and provoking action to combat climate change and adapt to a changing planet.

UChicago at Aspen Ideas: Climate

Featured Opening Panel: Finding Common Ground Between the Great Lakes and Arctic Shores
Speakers: Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI), Governor Mike Dunleavy (R-AK), moderated by Michael Greenstone

This panel explores how place, politics, and priorities have shaped different state’s approaches to energy, resilience, and economic development. Speakers explored the balance between community needs and economic opportunity—and where surprising common ground might emerge.

In Case of Emergency: Break Glass
Speakers: David Keith, Erin Burns, and Zeke Hausfather, moderated by Rob Meyer

Get a look into the complex dynamics that surround the deployment of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) solutions and the latest science, policy, and scaling challenges that moderate its speed. Hear from experts on the careful balance between trade-offs and benefits and how these fit into broader global strategies to mitigate the impacts of climate change.

The Return of the Market
Speakers: Michael Greenstone, Rama Variankaval, Jane Flegal, and Ali Zaidi, moderated by Juliet Eilperin

The U.S. once led the way in using market tools to tackle environmental challenges, but in recent decades, these approaches gave way to tax breaks and subsidies seen as more politically palatable. Now, two major trends are reviving interest: developing countries need low-cost, high-impact solutions to cut emissions without stalling growth, and the world needs cutting-edge technologies to confront climate change. What innovation can these markets potentially spur and what barriers remain?

Over the Horizon: Breakthroughs in Energy Technologies
Speakers: Shirley Meng, Carl Hoiland, Jeff Navin, and Avra van der Zee, moderated by Michael Webber

From breakthroughs in geothermal and energy storage to next-gen nuclear reactors, this session offers a forward-looking conversation about the most promising energy technologies today—as well as the innovations that lie just over the horizon. Which breakthroughs are poised to transform the global energy system, and are there any that could disrupt our assumptions about technology, markets, and the future of energy?