ROSEI Seminar: Daniel Kammen

Description

Daniel Kammen, a professor of energy at the University of California, Berkeley, will give a talk titled "Energy and Data Science & Policy for the Just Energy Transition" for the Ralph O'Connor Sustainable Energy Institute, co-organized and cohosted by the Department of Civil and Systems Engineering.

Abstract:

The climate emergency we face has prompted some nations, corporations, and many civil society organizations to greatly expand their decarbonization and climate protection actions. The paths to deeply decarbonizing local, national and regional economies requires innovations in a wide range of areas where new, sustainable, materials design, discovery, and implementation, and most notably highly interdisciplinary social justice work across diverse fields is critically needed, but are all at early stages. The demand for critical, rare-Earth materials, as just one example, is forecast to grow by 1,000% by 2050, demanding new approaches to shifting to sustainable materials, recycling and reduce usage strategies that are far beyond what is seen as possible today. The recognition that social injustice is tied to our existing, fossil-fuel intensive economy has led to important calls for a 'climate-justice' nexus to protect the planet, people, and nature. The challenge is to turn that vision into clear science-based initiatives programs, and social movements. We will highlight examples and challenges in materials discovery and deployment, and advance modeling techniques to work within and beyond sectors as examples of challenges where new thinking, entrepreneurs, and approaches to social justice are all needed.