scalable systems / fostering collaboration / international cooperation / accelerating innovation
Introduction to Restoring the Carbon Balance Webinar Series
What is the carbon budget?
The capacity of the Earth’s atmosphere to safely hold excess carbon without too much warming is limited. The situation is growing more urgent. Even after the December 2015 Climate Conference in Paris, it is unlikely that global economies will reduce carbon emissions quickly enough to achieve the goal of limiting the temperature increase to two degrees Celsius.
Unless that pace is dramatically accelerated, the planet will almost certainly exceed its “carbon budget” within two decades., This concern has led the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to conclude that negative emissions technologies (NETs), which removes CO2 from the air, will be needed to meet climate goals. However, NETs are still in the research, development or demonstration stages of commercialization and may not be ready in time, or feasible at the necessary scale.
Arizona State University (ASU) and the ASU Center for Negative Carbon Emissions (CNCE) is spearheading a campaign to develop a coalition of influential research, policy and potential funding organizations to speed the development and commercialization of technologies that can balance the carbon budget and open discussions about supportive policies and economic incentives. Researchers at ASU are tackling energy-related challenges ranging from renewable energy alternatives to the effects of climate change on the population. Our research combines ASU’s strengths in use-inspired energy resource science that sits at the interface of policy making affecting real change in the global race to energy efficiency and sustainability.
Restoring the Carbon Balance Webinar Series
Restoring the Carbon Balance – Webinar 1: The Imperative
Thursday, December 15, 2016
1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. EST
Restoring the Carbon Balance – The budget imperative from Security & Sustainability Forum on Vimeo.
The first webinar in the series explores the limited capacity of the Earth’s atmosphere to safely hold excess carbon without too much warming and reviews technology alternatives and social considerations.
The two subsequent webinars will discuss the research investment proposition for the range of Negative Emission Technologies and address the policy, regulatory and economic considerations needed for these disruptive technologies to be scalable in the 20 year timeframe.
We are seeking partner organizations and institutions interested in co-hosting the webinar series and/or willing to invest in balancing the carbon budget. We welcome your feedback on this initiative and are eager to discuss collaborations to further support these emerging technologies.
Moderator
David Biello, Science Curator at TED Talks and former Scientific American Energy and Environment Editor
Panelists
Jeffrey Sachs, World-renowned professor of economics, leader in sustainable development, senior UN advisor, bestselling author, and syndicated columnist
Kevin Anderson, Professor of Energy and Climate Change in the School of Mechanical, Aeronautical and Civil Engineering at the University of Manchester
John Shepherd, Emeritus Professor of Earth System Science within the Ocean and Earth Science Department of the Faculty of Natural and Environmental Science, University of Southampton at the National Oceanography Centre Southampton and a Fellow of the Royal Society
Restoring the Carbon Balance – Webinar 2: The Technologies Needed
February 1, 2017
1:00 pm -2:30 pm EST
Restoring the Carbon Budget – Policies and Financing Options from Security & Sustainability Forum on Vimeo.
Download the PDF of the Restoring the Carbon Balance – Webinar 2 presentation by clicking this link
Arizona State University’ Global Institute of Sustainability and the Security and Sustainability Forum in the second of a three part series on “Restoring the Carbon Budget” addressed the NETS technologies and the status of the research to develop and commercialize them.
In this recording of a conversation with Klaus Lackner, Director of the Center for Negative Carbon Emissions at Arizona State University, discussed the topic of carbon accounting. Klaus has a talent for making complex science topics understandable. Want to understand more about the importance of a carbon accounting system to restoring the carbon balance? Listen in to the interview.
Moderator:
Joel Makower, chairman and executive editor of GreenBiz Group Inc., creator of GreenBiz.com as well as research reports and events on the corporate sustainability strategy and trends, will moderate the session. Joel hosts the annual GreenBiz Forums and VERGE conferences around the world and is author of the annual State of Green Business report.
Panelist:
Eric Hanson is a senior research faculty member with the Energy Systems Analysis Group at Princeton University’s Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment. His research interests include engineering, economic, and policy-related assessments of advanced clean-energy technologies and processes using carbonaceous fuels (biomass, coal, natural gas), especially for addressing energy-related problems in developing countries.
Klaus Lackner, Director of the Center for Negative Carbon Emissions at Arizona State University. Klaus’s research interests includes closing the carbon cycle by capturing carbon dioxide from the air, carbon sequestration and carbon foot-printing, among other areas.
Susan Hovorka, Economic Geology Professor at the University of Texas at Austin. Her current research focuses on an assessment of the effectiveness of subsurface geologic sequestration of CO2 as a mechanism for reducing atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions.
Restoring the Carbon Balance – Webinar 3: Policies and Financing
May 11, 2017
12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. EST
Summary – Webinar 3, on May 11, will examine policies, political approaches and funding options that can facilitate investment in RD&D needed to accelerate the pace of commercialization of carbon removal, storage and utilization technologies.
Moderator
Andy Revkin, senior reporter for climate and related issues at ProPublica. He joined the Independent public-interest newsroom in December 2016, after 21 years of writing for The New York Times. He has won most of the top awards in science journalism, along with a Guggenheim Fellowship, Columbia University’s John Chancellor Award for sustained journalistic excellence and an Investigative Reporters & Editors Award.
Panelists
Klaus Lackner, Director of the Center for Negative Carbon Emissions at Arizona State University. Klaus’s research interests includes closing the carbon cycle by capturing carbon dioxide from the air, carbon sequestration and carbon foot-printing, among other areas.
Noah Deich, Director of the Center for Carbon Removal will examine regulatory and policy barriers and opportunities to provide incentives for investment in carbon management technologies.
Fatima Ahmad, Solutions Fellow at the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions who will discuss her recent work on financing opportunities and policy development for energy technologies, including carbon capture, use, and storage (CCUS).
Restoring the Carbon Balance – Webinar 4: Policies and Financing
June 8, 2017
1:15 p.m. – 2:45 p.m. EST
Download the PDF of the webinar presentation by clicking this link
Building on decades of work across the globe by the public and private sectors, has a shared global climate ethos — a sense of collective commitment and common purpose — reached a tipping point?
- Are the Paris Agreement and the growing number of cities adopting carbon-based energy goals evidence of that? How durable are these actions?
- Is a sense of common purpose sustainable without US federal government coordination and leadership? What roles do sub-national and municipal governments play?
- How can business, security, religious, and civil society actors continue and even accelerate efforts to reduce emissions? Can they work together to avoid the worst climate impacts?
- Is the global commitment to climate solutions shallow or deep?
- How can moral, scientific and political imperatives find common ground?
- Does the global climate ethos include extracting, storing and reusing carbon already in the atmosphere?
- Where do opportunities for collaborative innovation exist?
Join Arizona State University and global governance, business, science, policy and faith leaders in a 90 minute webinar to explore the depth and breadth of a global climate ethos and the direction of plausible, innovative climate action emerging across sectors and among global societies.
This webinar will convene leaders in a public conversation that touches on these critical questions and that can inspire local conversations and ideas to advance cross-sectoral collaborations.
We’ll also share resources to support a climate ethos dialogue in your community.
Moderator
Elisabeth Graffy, Professor, Consortium for Science Policy and Outcomes at Arizona State University
Panelists
Janos Pasztor, Senior Fellow and Executive Director, Carnegie Climate Geoengineering Governance Initiative C2G2
Alice C. Hill, Research Fellow, the Hoover Institution
Katharine Hayhoe, Scientist and Associate Professor, Texas Tech University