A Case for Climate Optimism

Climate emissions and global temperatures continue to rise and the impacts of a hotter world are becoming more immediate and apparent. Against this backdrop, climate anxiety is increasingly prevalent. Zealan Hoover is a senior leader at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency where he leads efforts to fight climate change by deploying billions of dollars in new federal investments to accelerate decarbonization. He will share the case for climate optimism grounded in progress the world has made since the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, outline the work that still needs to be done and share how today’s students can be part of the solution.

This talk is sponsored by the Jackson School of Geosciences and the UT Sustainability Office.

About the guest lecturer: Zealan Hoover is a Senior Advisor to the Environmental Protection Agency Administrator. For the past three years he has led EPA's implementation of more than $100 billion in programs authorized under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act. Prior to that, he worked in the private sector advising organizations on a wide range of strategic and operational matters with an emphasis on decarbonization and managing climate risk. From 2013-2017 he worked at the White House first on the Domestic Policy Council and then in the Office of the Chief of Staff. In those positions he supported President Obama’s domestic and international climate agenda including the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. Hoover graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he was a Morehead-Cain Scholar.