Penn announces Jacqueline Patterson as Carnot Prize recipient for contributions to energy justice

The Penn Kleinman Center for Energy Policy announced that energy justice advocate Jacqueline Patterson will receive the 2024 Carnot Prize.

Each year, the Kleinman Center awards the Carnot Prize to an individual who has "revolutionized our understanding of energy policy" through their scholarship or practice. Patterson received this year's award for her work in advancing energy equity and serving communities across the country that face environmental injustice. 

Patterson is the founder and executive director of the Shirley Chisholm Legacy Project, an organization that promotes awareness and education of energy justice within Black communities. The project is inspired by Chisholm, who was the first Black woman elected to the U.S. Congress in 1968 as a representative of New York's 12th congressional district. 

Founded in 2021, the Legacy Project has launched many initiatives intended to benefit Black communities in the United States and worldwide. One of these initiatives is the Global Afro-Descendant Climate Justice Collaborative, which aims to “build, deepen, and broaden African diaspora participation” in the collaborative and to “advance racial analysis and action within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.”

Patterson is also the founder and former senior director of the NAACP Environmental and Climate Justice Program, which creates and distributes resources to educate communities looking to advance environmental and climate justice. This program advocates for three primary objectives: reducing harmful emissions, advancing efficient and clean forms of energy, and improving community resilience.

"We are so pleased to recognize the great work of Jacqueline Patterson, who has spent her career shining a light on energy injustice and working tirelessly to correct it,” Stuart Weitzman School of Design Dean Fritz Steiner said in the announcement.

The Kleinman Center launched the Carnot Prize in 2015, making Patterson the ninth recipient of this award. The prize is named in remembrance of French scientist Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot, whose theory on heat engine efficiency helped develop the second law of thermodynamics.

Past winners of the Carnot Prize include inaugural winner Daniel Yergin, who was recognized for his global influence on energy policy and markets as an author and vice chairman of the research firm IHS. The previous year’s winner, Ramón Méndez Galain, is the executive director of the association Ivy, whose goal is to support Latin American development towards a new sustainable transition model for the 21st century.

"What a privilege it is to follow in the footsteps of the impressive energy policy mavens who have received this award before me,” Patterson said in the announcement. “What a joy it is to be honored by the Kleinman Center, which holds such a critical place in the field of energy policy. I stand behind and in servanthood to the awe-inspiring frontline leaders throughout the country and world whose sacrifices are immense and whose vision, fortitude, spirit, and strategic acumen guide me every day.”

The Carnot Prize ceremony honoring Patterson will take place Nov. 4 in the Kleinman Center's Energy Forum.