Telluride Foundation/Telluride Science/Open Minds: Dual Challenge: Climate & Energy,” 7/28!

28 Jul Telluride Foundation/Telluride Science/Open Minds: Dual Challenge: Climate & Energy,” 7/28!

The Telluride Foundation, Telluride Science and OpenMinds are co-hosting a panel discussion titled “Dual Challenge: Climate & Energy.” The event takes place Tuesday, July 28, 2026, 5:30 – 6:30 p.m., at Telluride Science’s home: The Telluride Innovation Center at the Depot, 300 South Townsend Street.  

The talk is free and open to the public, but RSVP is required. Go here.

Moderating: Jason Corzine of the Telluride Foundation and Mark Kozak of Telluride Science.

Thanks to the title sponsor Alpine Bank and Telluride Mountain Village Owner’s Association. 

Go here for more about the Telluride Foundation (back to 2009).

Go here for more about Telluride Science.

A major oil company’s climate director and a Nobel Peace Prize–winning atmospheric scientist walk into a room in Telluride.

Nope, not the setup to a joke. That’s exactly what’s happening the last week of July, and the whole town is invited to learn what comes out of that improbable pairing.

For decades, instead of climate AND energy, the story has been climate versus energy: scientists on one side, oil executives on the other, shouting across a canyon. This month, in an actual box canyon, they are going to be sitting down at the same table.

From July 27–31, the Telluride Science hosts a workshop unlike anything else on its calendar: “Bridging the Gap Between Climate Risks and Energy Access.” Climate scientists, oil and gas executives, utility leaders, investors, and policy experts, – a strategic split of 50:50 from each interest group – will spend four days building something rare in this debate, a plan to reduce emissions while meeting our increasing energy needs.

In town for the week:

• Climate chief and former CFO from two major oil giants.

• Dean of Columbia’s Climate School.

• Vice chair of China’s National Expert Panel on Climate Change.

And many others.

On Tuesday, July 28 at 6:30pm at the Sheridan Opera House, our community will get a look into the work that is happening behind closed doors all week.

Three of the summit’s voices will take the stage:

Dr. Guy Brasseur. He is an atmospheric scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and a coordinating lead author of the IPCC assessment awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. Brasseur helped write the science on which the whole argument now rests.

Georgina Campbell Flatter. She is CEO of Greentown Labs, the world’s largest climate and energy startup incubator. If a technology is going to get us out of this, there’s a good chance it passed through Flatter’s building first.

Jeff Guldner. He is the retired chairman and CEO of Arizona Public Service, the utility that operates the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station — always-on, carbon-free power of the kind that appears in nearly every serious decarbonization plan. Guldner has delivered “more energy, less emissions” with real customers and a real grid on the line. Climate goals are written in models and declarations; they live or die on systems like the one this man ran.

The science, the solutions, and the system — all on one stage!

More on this momentous workshop:

The gathering grew out of a partnership between Telluride Science and OpenMinds, a nonprofit with roots right here in Telluride, focused on cutting emissions while expanding energy access and ensuring economic viability.

OpenMinds co-founder and executive director David Baldwin knows both sides of the canyon personally. He came up in the oil patch and helped pioneer the drilling techniques behind the U.S. shale revolution. He now spends his energy and his resources on solving the dual challenge and changing the dialogue from “climate OR energy” to “climate AND energy.” OpenMinds made groundbreaking progress over the past year bringing together key and diverse perspectives to create a practical plan to modernize the US electric grid.

By Friday, the group aims to walk out with a joint declaration and a ranked list of the most impactful and implementable solutions. They will then work to scale the global adoption of those solutions with a plan of reconvening next year in Telluride to develop the next steps.

As the summit’s charter puts it, this is “not a conference for general discussion or advocacy. It’s a working session built to produce alignment and follow-through.”

Since 1984, Telluride Science has been a global leader in interdisciplinary collaboration, convening the world’s thought leaders to find solutions to societal and planetary grand challenges.”

This gathering just happens to be targeting the biggest challenge on our socio-economic-cultural menu.

Lucja Barker grew up in Telluride and Los Angeles. She studies environmental science and political journalism at NYU. And is delighted and honored to be working as an intern at the Telluride Science Center this summer.