July 23, 2026
Ambassador Eric Garcetti, former Mayor of Los Angeles and most recently U.S. Ambassador to India, opened VX2026's second day with an extended metaphor: the postwar international order as a building now beginning to crumble, and the choice facing this generation between remaining tenants and firefighters, or becoming its engineers and architects. In his welcoming remarks, Garcetti makes the case that climate progress in America is happening at the city and state level even as the federal administration asserts otherwise.
