Miami Beach to become ‘center of the climate action world’ with 2022 Aspen Ideas conference
A new climate conference is coming to Miami Beach and it’s a big one.
On Monday, city leaders announced that global nonprofit Aspen Institute planned to host its first climate-changed theme conference in Miami
Beach next year, titled Aspen Ideas: Climate.
Call it the climate change version of Art Basel, said Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber. He says it’s the best comparison for the influx of visitors, international attention and celebrity prestige this annual conference could bring, especially as it grows.
“We expect to be the center of the climate action world that week,” he said.
The Aspen Institute, which is primarily funded by institutions like the Carnegie Corporation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Gates Foundation, holds the prestigious Aspen Ideas Festival every year to discuss solutions to policy programs.
Aspen Ideas: Climate is the institute’s first climatethemed conference. It’s scheduled from March 3rd to the 7th and will feature several main stages and field trips around the region. Some of the keynote speeches will also be broadcast on the outside wall of the New World Symphony so anyone can listen in.
The main three areas of focus are energy, specifically on slashing emissions, sustainable food and agriculture and community resilience, said Greg Gershuny, executive director of Aspen’s energy and environment program.
Beyond the solutionsfocused panels, Gershuny said the conference will also feature climatethemed music, art and fashion, as part of its mission to serve as “a whole of self event that inspires people to move towards action, toward supporting solutions that can really bend the curve on emissions.”
Organizers said they’re building a nonpartisan event and inviting people who normally aren’t at the forefront of climate conversations, including some of Florida’s top Republicans, as well as business and utility leaders. They also want to tackle tricky topics like the role of nuencouraged clear power in the transition to clean energy.
Kitty Boone, vice president of public programs for Aspen, said the conference is operating from the understanding that climate change is a real and present threat and it’s caused by human action, as science shows, but they don’t advocate for any specific solution to the problem.
“I think it’s really important that — and what the institute does well is — convene these types of different perspectives on our stages in a really civil way and let the audience take a perspective and be better educated about it,” she said.
Dan Porterfield, CEO of the Aspen Institute, said they chose Miami Beach because of its well-known commitment to climate action and upfront conversations on the way that — if left unaddressed — climate change could devastate the city.
“Miami is one of the most important cities in the world,” he said. “We think this is a place where we can partner with local leadership to drive substantial change and do it over the course of a number of years.”
Gelber was initially to reach out to the Aspen team by some residents who regularly attend the prestigious (and pricey) event in Colorado. When he did, he found they were already eyeing South Florida for a climate-themed conference.
Aspen leaders visited the city in May, a whirlwind tour of Miami Beach’s elevated streets and high-capacity flood pumps, as well as back-toback meetings with top leaders in Miami.
They lunched with Miami Mayor Francis Suarez and dined with MiamiDade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava. They met with Knight Foundation CEO Alberto Ibargüen, Related Group CEO Jorge Pérez and Eduardo Padrón, the former president of Miami Dade College. They even met Gloria and Emilio Estefan.
“The Aspen brand, the Aspen mission attracts an enormous amount of attention,” Gelber said. “Their interest in our community as a canvas for their efforts can attract and has already begun to attract enormous philanthropic attention.”