Vision and Purpose

VISION

 A prosperous, healthy future powered entirely by clean energy is within reach.  Clean air and water, recovering ecosystems, and communities that fairly share the benefits of the new clean economy all are readily attainable. In the longer term, the creation of a clean energy economy will restabilize and then gradually cool the climate. It will also create a prosperous economy with millions of news jobs; thousands of new businesses; billions of dollars in new investment; and lower energy costs for everyone.

PURPOSE

Today, clean and cost- competitive technologies are abundant and ready to scale. They can lower household energy, fuel, and food costs while improving public health and reducing emissions.  The challenge now is to accelerate nationwide deployment and align the policies and institutions required to deliver these solutions at speed and scale.

As the federal government has questioned the scientific rationale for a clean energy economy and has attempted to undermine it, states, cities, regions, and markets have become the drivers of clean energy development in the U.S. Accelerating the Transition is the nonpartisan cross-sector action-oriented forum built for those delivering projects and advancing policies that make a clean energy economy real, quickly and cost-effectively.

We convene industry leaders, public officials, investors, and nonprofit partners to identify the most immediate bottlenecks, surface proven solutions, and coordinate action across institutions and markets to unlock faster deployment.

Our Three-Day Clean Energy and Climate Summit at San Francisco Climate Week 2026. As the global climate crisis worsens and  demands a serious, all-hands-on-deck national effort to accelerate the clean energy transition, the responsibility for climate protection has by default increasingly shifted to states, cities, regions, and markets.

Accelerating the Transition is therefore convening a three-day summit that brings together the leaders driving near-term clean energy and energy efficiency deployment — from industry, federal, state and local government, the investment community, and the nonprofit sector.

Participants will leave with practical, field-tested lessons on model approaches and priority policies, direct access to prospective customers and investors, and will meet potential partners for new public-private partnerships to advance real projects. This is not a talkfest, but a working forum for those delivering projects on the ground.

The convening will culminate in an actionable Roadmap to a Swift Clean Energy Transition, identifying the most immediate constraints and the concrete steps required to overcome them quickly. The roadmap will be unveiled at a nationally publicized press conference, amplifying the signal beyond the room and into the national policy conversation.

Accelerating the Transition (ATT) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in the San Francisco Bay Area, founded by John J. Berger, Ph.D., an environmental science and policy specialist and author of Solving the Climate Crisis: Frontline Reports from the Race to Save the Earth (2023).  

Dr. Berger’s research points to a simple truth: the United States already has the technologies needed to build a fossil-fuel-free energy economy. What slows progress is not invention anymore, but execution: failures of policy, planning, prioritization, and financing. In the utility sector, this is manifested in permitting delays, long transmission access queues, procurement difficulties, and local community opposition.

While it is essential that we eventually get Federal policy aligned behind the clean energy transition, for now—in the absence of Federal support—outcomes depend largely on subnational action by state agencies and legislatures, city and county planning and permitting bodies, regional grid operators; utilities and public utility commissions.

ATT exists to accelerate subnational delivery. We are a cross-sectoral alliance of partner organizations convening the change agents in a setting designed for candor, fast alignment, and follow-through. Our goal is not more talk, but clearer priorities, faster decisions, and better handoffs across institutions.

We also seek to facilitate public-private partnerships to advance the nation's clean tech and clean energy capabilities. We will do so by bringing together often-siloed sectors of the clean energy and climate-protection ecosystems to foster cross-sectoral collaboration.

The 2026 Accelerating the Transition convening at San Francisco Climate Week is designed as an implementation-oriented   event to translate participants' consensus and insights into a concrete, post-event deliverable in the form of a policy roadmap containing a set of shared deployment priorities and next-steps that participants can carry back to their organizations and communities, and that policymakers and media can use to accelerate follow-through.