Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES)
Building common ground for practical climate solutions
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Climate change is one of the biggest challenges of this century, and it will take action from governments, at all levels, as well as significant leadership and investment from the business community to create a transformation to a low-carbon economy, and to safeguard our citizens from the worst impacts of climate change.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
International Policy
Advancing dialogues and conducting research to help world leaders forge new agreements and advance policy solutions that address climate change.
Domestic Policy
Advancing dialogues and conducting research to help US leaders forge new agreements and advance policy solutions that address climate change.
Innovative Business Solutions
Working with business leaders to help them address the challenge of climate change.
Where we work
External reviews

Photos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of website pageviews
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Our mission is to advance strong policy and action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, promote clean energy, and strengthen resilience to climate impacts. A key objective is a national market-based program to reduce emissions cost-effectively. We believe a sound climate strategy is essential to ensure a strong, sustainable economy.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Here are some of the ways we work with policymakers and diverse stakeholders to meet our climate and energy challenges:
Business Environmental Leadership Council
Our council – including top companies in the power, manufacturing, transportation, high-tech, oil and gas, finance, and other sectors – is the largest U.S.-based group of companies devoted solely to addressing climate change. C2ES works with these business leaders to better understand the policies and technologies that will help us reach our climate goals.
Climate Innovation 2050
Climate Innovation 2050 brings together more than two dozen leading companies to examine potential pathways toward substantially decarbonizing the U.S. economy. Climate Innovation 2050 is developing a range of scenarios for reducing U.S. emissions, and will later produce decarbonization roadmaps to achieve that goal.
Partnering with Mayors
In partnership with The U.S. Conference of Mayors, C2ES is working to strengthen public-private climate cooperation in cities nationwide. The Alliance for a Sustainable Future helps mayors and business leaders work together to reduce carbon emissions, speed deployment of clean technologies, and promote sustainable development.
International Dialogue
C2ES brought together negotiators from two dozen countries to help lay the groundwork for the landmark Paris Agreement, and is now working with them to ensure it is effectively implemented. We're also advancing global efforts to phase out HFCs, a highly potent class of greenhouse gases, and to reduce aviation emissions.
Market-Based Strategies
C2ES is working with cities, states, and businesses to explore cap-and-trade, carbon taxes and other market-based strategies for cost-effective emissions reduction, with the ultimate aim of a national market-based climate program.
Strengthening Resilience
C2ES has worked with some of the world's largest companies to strengthen business resilience to extreme weather and other climate impacts. Building on that expertise, we're now bringing businesses and cities together to assess and address climate risks.
Climate Leadership Awards and Conference
C2ES co-hosts the annual Climate Leadership Conference, where hundreds of sustainability, energy, and climate professionals from the public, private and non-profit sectors get the latest on policy and business solutions. The conference features the prestigious Climate Leadership Awards.
Solutions Forum
Through public-private roundtables around the U.S., C2ES brings together business, state, and city leaders to develop practical climate solutions.
Carbon Capture Coalition
C2ES and the Great Plains Institute co-convene the Carbon Capture Coalition, a broad coalition of business, environmental, labor, and state representatives advancing technology to capture carbon emissions from factories and power plants for storage and commercial use.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
C2ES is widely recognized as an influential and pragmatic voice on climate issues. We are:
-- A Trusted Source – Ranking regularly among the top environmental think tanks in the world, C2ES provides timely, impartial information and analysis on our pressing climate and energy challenges.
-- A Bridge-Builder – We bring city, state, and national policymakers together with businesses and other stakeholders to achieve common understanding and consensus solutions.
-- A Policy Innovator – We develop market-based solutions and other practical policy approaches that deliver real and lasting climate progress.
-- A Catalyst for Business Action – We work with Fortune 500 companies to strengthen business action and business support for effective climate policy.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Progress from our last reporting period:
Domestic Policy: C2ES works with communities and businesses across the U.S. to forge climate and clean energy solutions. We conducted research and produced reports and webinars on topics ranging from carbon utilization to accelerating the EV market for retailers and the trucking industry. We conducted educational campaigns on carbon pricing options, benefits of expanding markets for utilization of captured carbon dioxide. We also created near-term policy recommendations for state and federal clean energy standards. As part of our Alliance for a Sustainable Future, we published results of a sustainability questionnaire with responses from more than 180 American cities. C2ES published a “Climate Essentials” series, offering a foundation for understanding various climate impacts and solutions, covering climate resilience investments, climate science, and business risks.
In May 2019, as part of our Climate Innovation 2050 initiative, we released a report called Pathways to 2050: Scenarios for Decarbonizing the US Economy, exploring a broad array of social, economic, and technological transformations that may affect efforts to achieve carbon neutrality. Then in November 2019, we built upon this report with the release of a comprehensive U.S. policy agenda for economy-wide decarbonization, Getting to Zero: A US Climate Agenda.
International Policy: C2ES continues our workshops with climate negotiators, helping to create space for them to engage on strategies to strengthen the Paris Agreement. Ahead of the 2019 U.N. climate conference in Madrid we organized discussions among negotiators on the last remaining piece of the Paris “rulebook” – the accounting rules for international carbon markets. We released a report, Completing the Paris ‘Rulebook’: Key Article 6 Issues, providing background on the Article 6 issues and discussions; presenting a hypothetical transfer to help illustrate issues pertaining to double counting; and reviewing four key outstanding issues and options for addressing them. We were honored to once again rank as one of the world’s top environmental think tanks in the University of Pennsylvania’s Global Go To Think Tank Index.
Business Innovation: C2ES convenes business climate leaders, helping them share best practices, and encouraging businesses to engage policymakers. Our ninth annual Climate Leadership Conference and Awards brought hundreds of influential climate, energy, and sustainability professionals to Detroit to exchange ideas on policy, innovation, and business solutions. This year’s conference offered trainings in key areas to help corporate, government, and non-profit leaders better engage on climate-related issues including policy, resilience, climate risk disclosure, and carbon neutrality. We continued to support the work of the Renewable Thermal Collaborative to help companies expand the use of renewable energy to meet their thermal needs and published resources to help co
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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Who are the people you serve with your mission?
We serve primarily adults (of all ages) as we advance strong policy and ambitious action to: reduce greenhouse gas emissions; promote and accelerate the clean energy transition; strengthen adaptation and resilience to climate impacts; and facilitate the necessary financial investments to do so.
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How is your organization collecting feedback from the people you serve?
Electronic surveys (by email, tablet, etc.), Focus groups or interviews (by phone or in person), Community meetings/Town halls, Constituent (client or resident, etc.) advisory committees,
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals,
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What significant change resulted from feedback?
C2ES hosts series of regional roundtables to bring together local, state, and federal policymakers; businesses of all sizes; community organizations; leading academics and issue experts; trade associations; investors; and philanthropy. These conversations are meant to elevate the perspectives of a diverse set of stakeholders deeply embedded in their communities and uniquely positioned to speak to the needs of their states and regions. Following a recent roundtable in West Virginia, C2ES was able to update and revise our policy recommendations for state and federal policymakers to help meet urgent local needs and realize the discrete economic opportunities communities can maximize through the transition to a net-zero economy.
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With whom is the organization sharing feedback?
Our staff, Our board, Our funders,
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How has asking for feedback from the people you serve changed your relationship?
Asking for feedback from our constituents and partners strengthens our relationships and usually leads to the discovery of new opportunities.
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive,
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
We don't have any major challenges to collecting feedback,
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES)
Board of directorsas of 11/22/2022
Mr. Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Barclays Capital
Frank Loy
Ann Klee
General Electric Company
David Hone
Shell International Ltd.
Leslie Carothers
Environmental Law Institute
John Schmitz
Prime Policy Group
Louis Renjel
Duke Energy
Trammell Crow
Earth Day Texas
Kathleen Merrigan
George Washington University
Nathaniel Keohane
Center for Climate and Energy Solutions
Jeffrey Williams
Jeffrey Williams & Associates LLC
Mike Twomey
Charles River Associates
Jim McGinnis
PJ SOLOMON
Roger Martella
General Electric
Maureen Raymo
Columbia Climate School
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? No
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? GuideStar partnered on this section with CHANGE Philanthropy and Equity in the Center.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
Equity strategies
Last updated: 03/09/2022GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.