Pathways to Decarbonization in Practice | Fall 2022 Collaboratory
The virtual Collaboratory Global Seminar series is open to the global public and all are invited to attend.
The landmark 2015 Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) commits all countries to keep global mean temperature increase well below 2 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial levels by the end of the century and to make efforts to limit the temperature rise to below 1.5 degrees Celsius. For the first time in history, countries recognize the need to peak global greenhouse gas emissions “as soon as possible” and to fully decarbonize their economies during this century to achieve net-zero global greenhouse gas emissions. In Paris, negotiators achieved what can reasonably be expected from a global climate agreement. Now scientists, engineers, businessmen, policymakers, politicians, and civil society must make the transformation to low-emission societies a reality.
This webinar series will explore how long-term pathways are being developed and used, and will look at both the land-use and employment implications that need to be considered in the transition to decarbonization, as well as the enabling policy environment to achieve a zero emissions future.
The Collaboratory is an initiative of Columbia University, Sustainable Development Solutions Network, and Columbia Global Centers | Rio de Janeiro.
Join us for three virtual sessions below!
ABOUT THE SEMINARS
SEMINAR 1 | SEPTEMBER 21, 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM (EDT)
Pathways to Decarbonization: Energy Systems and Land Use Planning
Land use policies impact every aspect of the transition to zero greenhouse emissions, including: siting of renewable energy, next generation biofuels, reforestation, soil carbon, and emissions from agriculture and livestock. The complexity of policy choices in this area will require new efforts at RDD&D, new inter-agency planning, and enhanced cooperation of all levels of government with each other and with impacted communities.
- Speakers:
-
Grace Wu, UC Berkeley
-
Emily Leslie, Montara Mountain Energy
-
Jamil Farbes, Evolved Energy Research
-
- Reading:
SEMINAR 2 | OCTOBER 5, 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM (EDT)
Pathways to Decarbonization: Energy Jobs and Ensuring a Just Transition
Achieving zero carbon will initiate major changes throughout the U.S. economy and society. Large-scale job creation will certainly result in all regions of the U.S. economy through clean energy expenditures on both the supply and demand sides of this nationwide project, with budgetary levels in the range of about $500 billion per year on average between 2021 – 2030. But these will not necessarily all be good-quality jobs or accessible to all population cohorts. The transition away from the fossil fuel-dominant energy system will also entail job losses. It will produce hardships for communities whose well-being is currently dependent on fossil fuel industries. These negatively impacted workers and communities will require significant transitional support.
- Speakers:
- Heloisa Borges, Director of Oil & Gas & Biofuels, EPE
- Jeannette Wicks-Lim, Associate Research Professor, The University of Massachusetts Amherst
- Moderator:
- Eduarda Zoghbi, Director of Women In Energy Brasil, CGC Rio
- Reading:
SEMINAR 3 | OCTOBER 19, 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM (EDT)
Pathways to Decarbonization: Energy Transition Showcase: Costa Rica, Brazil, and United States
Long-term decarbonization pathways provide clear and comprehensive outlines of the technologies, investments, and policies countries need to reach net-zero carbon emissions. Pathways can help in increasing the ambition, providing long-term benchmarks for measuring short-term progress, avoiding dead-ends, designing resilient and adaptive policies in the face of uncertainties, informing private-sector decision-making, guiding today’s policies and investments in low-emission technologies, achieving other sustainable development priorities, and coordinating policy and investment across jurisdictions, sectors, and levels of government. Countries around the world are now working on developing integrated long term plans to help identify opportunities for decarbonization, as well as align objects across the Sustainable Development Goals. This session will showcase three country pathways studies that have attempted to do just that.
- Speakers:
- Adrien Vogt-Schilb, Senior Climate Change Economist, Inter-American Development Bank
- Ben Haley, Co-Founder, Evolved Energy Research
- Kartik Chandran, Professor of Earth and Environmental Engineering, Columbia University
- Thais Kasecker, Project Director na Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)
- Reading: