Center for Climate and Energy Solutions

• 1. Introduction

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  The Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, known as C2ES, took shape in Washington, D.C. in 2011 as the direct successor to the Pew Center on Global Climate Change. It stepped into a moment when the gap between climate science and national policy felt wider than ever, with no mandatory federal framework for greenhouse gas emissions in place. What kind of organization could sit comfortably with both Fortune 500 boardrooms and UN negotiating tables? What does it mean to champion market-based strategies while lobbying Congress? And how did a group formed out of another institution's legacy come to rank among the top five environment policy think tanks in the world? Those questions run through everything C2ES has done since its founding.

• 2. Roots in the Pew Center

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  Before C2ES existed, there was the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, and its legacy shaped the new organization in direct, traceable ways. Eileen Claussen served as the Pew Center's founding president and carried that role into C2ES as its first leader. The Business Environmental Leadership Council, which C2ES now convenes, began under the Pew Center in 1998 with just 13 member companies. The Pew Center also participated as a founding member of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, a coalition that pressed Congress for a mandatory national climate policy. When C2ES launched in 2011, it inherited those institutional relationships and that record of work, giving it a foundation that most new nonprofits spend years building.

• 3. Business as a Partner

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  By 2008, the Business Environmental Leadership Council had grown from those original 13 companies to 44 members with a combined market capitalization of $2.8 trillion. By 2021 the council had 38 companies, mainly from the Fortune 500, with a combined revenue approaching $3 trillion. C2ES treats business not as an obstacle to climate action but as a vehicle for it, convening the BELC as the largest U.S.-based association of companies committed to advancing both policy and business solutions on climate. In 2017, C2ES organized a full-page letter from 25 major companies that ran simultaneously in The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Post, urging President Trump to keep the United States in the Paris Agreement. In December 2020, more than 40 companies added their names to a statement calling on Congress and incoming President Biden to address climate change, including by rejoining the Paris Agreement. A July 2021 statement signed by 41 companies pushed Congress to prioritize clean energy and climate spending in an infrastructure package.

• 4. Programs and Research

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  Climate Innovation 2050 launched in 2018 and brought together more than three dozen companies from across different sectors to map pathways for decarbonizing the U.S. economy, with the goal of achieving carbon neutrality no later than 2050. The Carbon Capture Coalition, which C2ES co-founded, brings businesses and organizations together to build federal policy support for broad deployment of carbon capture technologies. On the resilience side, C2ES has published briefs on strengthening communities against climate-related extreme weather events, working directly with cities, states, and businesses. Experts from the organization have regularly testified before the United States Congress. C2ES also plays a role in international climate negotiations, organizing informal discussions among key UN negotiators and having led exploratory talks before 2015 that helped shape options for the Paris Agreement.

• 5. Leadership Over Time

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  Bob Perciasepe, previously deputy administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, served as C2ES president from 2014 to 2021 and now acts as a senior adviser to the organization. Nathaniel Keohane stepped into the presidency in July 2021, bringing experience from his time as Senior Vice President for Climate at the Environmental Defense Fund and as Special Assistant to the President for Energy and Environment under Barack Obama. The C2ES board of directors is led by Chair Theodore Roosevelt IV. In September 2021, C2ES was selected to form the Executive Secretariat of the Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets, a new independent governance body focused on overseeing carbon offsets and accelerating the transition to net-zero.

• 6. Standing in the Field

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  The Global Go To Think Tank Rankings, a survey of hundreds of scholars and experts conducted by the University of Pennsylvania, has consistently placed C2ES and its predecessor among the world's top environmental think tanks. In 2021, the organization ranked No. 43 among all think tanks in the United States and No. 5 among environment policy think tanks worldwide. That standing reflects a model built on stakeholder processes that bring together business leaders, environmental groups, policymakers, and other voices. The organization's production of white papers and reports by noted climate experts, combined with direct congressional testimony, positions C2ES as both a convener of coalitions and a source of technical analysis for legislators working on climate and energy policy.