Today’s guest is Justin Guay, Director of Global Climate Strategy at Sunrise Project, and organization that grows social movements to drive the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy as fast as possible.

Justin  has a decade of experience in nonprofit advocacy and foundation strategy development, including managing grant making and strategy for global coal campaigns at ClimateWorks Foundation and the Packard Foundation. At the Packard foundation he oversaw a $40 million grant making portfolio across all climate and energy priorities in India, China, the US, the EU and South East Asia. He has also run the Sierra Club’s International Coal Campaign as the Associate Director for the International Climate Program.  The program focused on global efforts to transition energy systems beyond coal to clean energy with a special focus on international finance.

In today’s episode, we cover:

• Overview of Sunrise Project
• Justin’s history pre-Sunrise Project
• When he started caring about climate change, and why
• How his thinking has evolved on the problem from when he started to now
• Goals of Sunrise project and nature of the coal problem
• Where we are with getting off of coal and where we need to get to
• Biggest changes that would accelerate this path
• Biggest hurdles to these coming about and how to help
• Role of CCS, nuclear, etc
• Role of innovation, philanthropy, and policy
• Justin’s advice for others looking to find their lane in the climate fight

Links to topics discussed in this episode:

• The Sunrise Project: https://sunriseproject.org.au/
• ClimateWorks Foundation: https://www.climateworks.org/
• Sierra Club: https://www.sierraclub.org/
• IPCC 1.5 degree report: https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/
• Global Energy Monitor: https://globalenergymonitor.org/
• Ohio coal and nuclear bailout: https://insideclimatenews.org/news/23072019/ohio-coal-nuclear-bailout-law-signed-cuts-renewable-energy-efficiency-programs-governor-dewine

You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 or @mcjpod and email at [email protected], where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.

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*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant