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What makes a climate future feel worth building & worth consenting to?
As climate moves from ambition to implementation, the hardest challenge is no longer only what to build, but how to build in ways that people experience as legitimate, credible, & worth supporting.
Across climate infrastructure & policy, public legitimacy is becoming an increasingly decisive factor in whether projects move forward, stall, or collapse. For project developers, investors, & public leaders alike, legitimacy is no longer peripheral to deployment: it shapes timelines, cost, political durability, and, increasingly, feasibility itself.
Join Accelerating The Transition for a special SF Climate Week evening convening with leaders from government, industry, investment, & civil society on one of the defining challenges of climate progress: how trust, public engagement, & narrative shape the legitimacy required for durable climate solutions deployment.
The evening will begin with a panel exploring three questions: why legitimacy has become a real deployment factor for climate infrastructure projects; why it so often breaks down in practice; & what more legitimate project development looks like in operational terms, from earlier engagement & meaningful local influence to clearer public purpose, community benefit, & narratives that reflect reality rather than mask tension.
It will be followed by a fireside chat with Tyrone Jue, Director of the San Francisco Environment Department, on what public trust, civic legitimacy, & durable climate leadership look like from the city's perspective, & what it takes to build futures people can actually see themselves in.
We will then continue the conversation over cocktails with speakers & guests across the climate ecosystem.
Date: April 20, 2026, 5:30 PM-9:30 PM
Location: Nixon Peabody, 1 Embarcadero Center, 32nd Floor, San Francisco, CA 94111
Agenda
5:45-6:00 PM | Arrival & Welcome
6:00-7:00 PM | Panel Discussion: Building Legitimacy: How Public Engagement & Narratives Can Unlock Climate Infrastructure Deployment
Speakers:
Nathalie Birac, U.S. Managing Director at Laketricity (floating solar development perspective)
Ms. Margaret Gordon, Co-Founder of the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project & Recipient of the White House Champion of Change award (environmental justice perspective)
Kim Grob, Co-founder, Creative Services Partner, Right On (storytelling perspective)
Adam Kurland, Federal Energy Attorney, Environmental Defense fund (electricity transmission infrastructure perspective)
7:00-7:15 PM | Closing remarks by Tyrone Jue, Director of the San Francisco Environment Department.
7:15-9:15 PM | Cocktail Reception: Guests will then continue the discussion over cocktails with speakers, decision-makers, & fellow climate leaders.
Moderator & Organizer: Tuong-Vi An-Gourfinkel, Accelerating the Transition.
Sponsor: Our sincere thanks to Nixon Peabody LLP for generously supporting this event through the provision of the venue & catering.
By registering for this event, you agree to share your registration information with the organizers of SF Climate Week.
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