2026 CLIMATE WEEK NYC × COLUMBIA BUSINESS SCHOOL
The 35% Moment: What Will It Take to Electrify the Global Economy by 2035?
Tuesday, September 22, 2026
6:00-7:30 PM ET
Dinner will be provided while supplies last
Columbia Business School, Henry Kravis Hall, Room 1040
665 W 130th Street, New York, NY 10027
Electricity meets barely a fifth of the world's final energy demand today. Yet electrification is the fastest lever governments have to cut emissions, insulate households from the next fossil fuel price shock, and maintain energy security. Getting there means moving vehicles, buildings, and industry onto electrons and modernizing and expanding the power grid faster than any economy has yet managed.
With over 100 companies, the EU, UN, and more, likely to commit to electrify 35% of final energy demand by 2035, this event will ask what it takes to electrify the economy within the next decade. The countries that pull it off first won't just hit a target, they'll write the playbook everyone else has to follow.
This special event will be co-presented by the Climate Knowledge Initiative at Columbia Business School and Centre for Net Zero, a nonprofit research institute founded by Octopus Energy Group.
Speakers:
- Devrim Celal, Chief Flexibility and Marketing Officer, Kraken
- Neeraj Jain, Co-founder and Director of SolarSquare
- Robert Metcalfe, Chief Economist at Centre for Net Zero (part of the Octopus Energy Group) and Professor at Columbia SIPA
- Kelly Yazdani, Chief Customer Officer, Voltus
- Gernot Wagner (moderator), Climate Economist and Faculty Director of the Climate Knowledge Initiative at Columbia Business School