Michael Hamersky, Executive Director, Pace Energy and Climate Center
For more than four decades, the Pace Energy and Climate Center (PECC) has been at the forefront of advancing clean energy solutions and environmental policy to confront the climate crisis. Operating at the intersection of energy, climate and the law, we engage government leaders and key stakeholders with rigorous legal and policy analysis, always grounded in real-world application. Importantly, our work is grounded in bottom-up solutions to solving the climate crisis, which include significant contributions from law students at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law’s environmental law programme. PECC prides itself in being the training ground for the next generation of energy and climate leaders.
Founded in 1987 by our late Dean Emeritus Richard L. Ottinger, following his distinguished service in the US Congress, PECC began as the Pace Energy Project. From its inception, Dean Ottinger recognised the profound environmental implications of how we produce and consume energy. Under his leadership, the Center pioneered research on the social and environmental costs of energy production, championing energy efficiency and renewable, long before they became mainstream.
As a hub for legal, economic and regulatory research, PECC delivers practical solutions to drive equitable decarbonisation.
PECC’s work focuses on a broad range of critical issues, including: policy analysis relayed to energy affordability, identifying the root causes, and potential solutions to mitigate climate change; improving energy grid operations and efficiencies; advancing renewable energy and distributed generation towards building decarbonisation; solar and energy storage; thermal energy networks; regulatory policies towards energy efficiency and electrification; and circular economy concepts toward sustainable development and a just energy transition.
While PECC works at all levels—local, state, regional, national and international—to create scalable, inclusive and lasting solutions, recent experience has shown that top-down solutions have become increasingly unreliable in delivering the solutions to the climate crisis that are necessary. Accordingly, PECC focuses on developing bottom-up solutions through stakeholder engagement, collaborative research and evidence-based advocacy, building stronger policies and stronger communities related to the energy transition.
At PECC, collaboration is at the heart of our mission. We work alongside a diverse network of partners—including sub-national governmental agencies, regional energy organisations, academic institutions, utilities, community, nonprofit and advocacy groups—to advance equitable solutions to the most pressing energy and climate challenges. PECC is proud to partner with COPx and believes that the COPx platform is essential to facilitating the kind of bottom-up, community-oriented solutions to the climate crisis that are currently lacking.
