On Thursday, June 29 panelists looked at the role of critical minerals in the green energy transition, acceleration of advanced technologies and enhanced defense applications. Discussants provided a multinational perspective on the scramble to pivot away from dependencies on insecure sources and the defense against potential supply disruptions.
Featured Speakers:
Lachlan Carey, Manager, Rocky Mountain Institute
Andrew Jory, Minister-Counsellor (Trade), Embassy of Australia
Helaina Matza, Deputy Special Coordinator for the Partnership on Global Infrastructure Investment, U.S. Department of State
David Schwietert, Chief Policy Officer, Alliance for Automotive Innovation
Moderator: Adina Renee Adler, Deputy Executive Director, Silverado Policy Accelerator
Speaker Biographies:
Lachlan Carey is Manager at RMI, where he is leading work on US regional economic development through clean energy investment. Through work on US clean energy competitiveness across a range of critical clean energy technologies, RMI is turning research into targeted regional investment strategies. These strategies will identify region-specific clean energy economic development opportunities and prioritize the areas of investment needed to help drive a clean energy economic development strategy in specific multi-state regions.
Previously at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Carey’s research and writing covered the geopolitics of the clean energy transition, comparative green industrial policy, US federal climate policy, and clean energy supply chains. Prior to moving to the United States to study at Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs, Carey was an economist at the Australian Treasury Department.
Mr. Andrew Jory is the Minister-Counsellor (Trade) at the Australian Embassy in Washington DC.
Prior to this position he was the Assistant Secretary, Goods and Market Access Branch, Office of Trade Negotiations in Canberra. In this role, Mr. Jory was Australia’s Deputy Chief Negotiator in the EU-Australia Free Trade Agreement and ran the goods agenda. Mr. Jory was Australia’s Chief Negotiator in the Peru-Australia Free Trade Agreement and Pacific Alliance Free Trade Agreement.
Prior to this Mr. Jory ran Australia’s goods team in Australia’s Mission to the World Trade Organization (WTO), Geneva, Switzerland, where he played a key role in the WTO Decision which eliminated export subsidies in agriculture.
Mr. Jory was also Australia’s lead goods market access negotiator in the TPP and closed market access deals with the U.S., Mexico and Canada.
Helaina R. Matza is the Deputy Special Coordinator for the Partnership on Global Infrastructure Investment, U.S. Department of State. Matza has most recently served as the Director of Energy Transformation in the Bureau of Energy Resources at the Department of State. In this role she led strategic engagement on clean energy and power sector issues, including the Department’s multilateral effort focused on securing clean energy supply chains. Helaina previously served as Director of Climate Diplomacy and Energy Transformation at the National Security Council in the White House.
Helaina has spent the past eight years at the Department of State developing and managing multi-million-dollar innovative initiatives related to energy, climate change and environmental issues. She has served in a diverse set of roles, including as a lead sustainability advisor developing the Department’s global air quality monitoring program, leading several Bureau of Energy Resources’ policy priorities overseas, and as a lead negotiator on the U.S. delegation at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Before joining the Department of State, she held positions focused on philanthropic engagement and trade promotion. Helaina holds an M.P.A. focused on global energy management and a B.A. in International Affairs, both from The George Washington University.
David Schwietert is the Chief Policy Officer at the Alliance for Automotive Innovation. With the broad membership of Auto Innovators, Mr. Schwietert works to develop intelligent solutions that advance the Association’s legislative and regulatory agenda when it comes to a cleaner, safer, and smarter future.
Before joining the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, David Schwietert was the interim President and CEO of the Alliance for Automobile Manufacturers. Prior to joining the Auto Alliance in 2015, Mr. Schwietert worked in the U.S. Senate for over 15 years and held various policy positions, including staff director of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
Adina Renee Adler is the Deputy Executive Director of Silverado Policy Accelerator. Ms. Adler is an expert in trade and environmental policy with 25 years of professional experience in government and the private and nonprofit sectors. Most recently, she served as the Vice President of Advocacy at the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI), a trade association that represents over 1,600 for-profit companies in the recycling space. She also has over a decade of experience in government, having served as an International Trade Specialist in the U.S. Department of Commerce and as the Director for South Asia at the Office of the United States Trade Representative. After leaving the government, she was an International Government Affairs advisor with Shell Oil Company and Alcoa. Adina serves on her third charter with the U.S. Department of Commerce Environmental Technologies Trade Advisory Committee (ETTAC). She earned her bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from The George Washington University and holds a master’s degree in International Economics and International Law from The Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).
WITA’s Trade & Environment events are supported by the generous sponsorship of Silverado Policy Accelerator
