On February 10th and 11th, the Sustainability Institute held its inaugural energy symposium: Energy Transition and Decarbonization. We explored the monumental challenges in the needed energy transition, interdisciplinary research at Ohio State to advance sustainability energy, and steps the university is taking to address climate change.
The symposium was organized by Ohio State Sustainability Institute Sustainable Energy Research Leads Associate Professor Jeffrey Bielicki, Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geodetic Engineering and John Glenn College of Public Affairs, and Professor David Cole, School of Earth Sciences.
The recordings for both Day 1 and Day 2 are available on Ohio State Sustainability Institute's YouTube channel. The recordings are separated by chapters in the video descriptions and are also linked below.
Symposium Agenda
February 10, 2021 (Wednesday):
Welcome (Kate Bartter, Executive Director - Sustainability Institute)
Introduction and Energy Sustainability (Jeffrey Bielicki Ph.D., Associate Professor - Civil, Environmental, and Geodetic Engineering & John Glenn College of Public Affairs; Research Program Lead, Sustainability Institute)
- Energy sustainability framework
- What are the policy goals? Reducing temperature increase? Rate of warming?
- What do we mean by sustainability? Resilience? Just Transition?
- What is the counterfactual for changing energy systems?
Keynote: Robert Socolow Ph.D., “The Urgency and Pitfalls of Swapping the Current Energy System for a Low-Carbon One”
Professor Emeritus - Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University
- Keynote. Papers by Socolow related to his talk:
- Witnessing for the Middle to Depolarize the Climate Change Conversation, Dædalus, the Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences
- Contending with climate change: The next 25 years, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
- Moderated Q&A (Socolow, Bielicki)
What Does it Mean to Go Renewable?
- Why? How? Can it be done? Is it enough to mitigate climate change?
- Electricity Systems 101
- Energy technologies - wind, solar, geothermal, nuclear, natural gas, coal, nuclear, etc. (Daniel Gingerich Ph.D., Assistant Professor - Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geodetic Engineering; Department of Integrated Systems Engineering)
- How electricity systems work and need for energy storage (Ramteen Sioshansi Ph.D., Professor - Department of Integrated Systems Engineering; Director - EmPOWERment National Research Traineeship)
- Law and Governance (Cinnamon Carlarne J.D., Associate Dean for Faculty and Intellectual Life, Alumni Society Designated Professor of Law - Moritz College of Law)
- Moderated Panel Discussion (Gingerich, Sioshansi, Carlarne, Bielicki)
What Does it Mean to Go Negative?
- Needs and issues for drawing down atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations
- Approaches
- Ecological: biochar, afforestation, soil carbon, etc. (Brent Sohngen Ph.D., Professor - Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics)
- Technological: Direct air capture with CCS, BECCS, ocean iron fertilization, chemical weathering (David Cole Ph.D., Ohio Research Professor - School of Earth Sciences; Research Program Lead for Sustainable Energy - Sustainability Institute)
- Land-use behavior and keeping the ecological carbon isolated (Robyn Wilson, Ph.D., Professor of Risk Analysis and Decision Science - School of Environment and Natural Resources)
- Moderated Panel Discussion (Sohngen, Cole, Wilson, Bielicki)
Power To, For, and From the People:
- NIMBY, BANANA, and Communities
- Community Impacts (Jeffrey Jacquet Ph.D., Assistant Professor - School of Environment and Natural Resources)
- Ohio State Extension (Myra Moss, Professor/Educator - College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Ohio State Extension - Community Development)
- Overcoming Extractivism: Toward Just Decarbonization (Anna Willow Ph.D., Professor - Department of Anthropology)
- Moderated Panel Discussion: (Jacquet, Moss, Willow, Bielicki)
Day 2 – February 11, 2021 (Thursday):
Recap and Kickoff (David Cole Ph.D., Ohio Research Professor - School of Earth Sciences; Research Program Lead for Sustainable Energy, Sustainability Institute)
Keynote: Scott W. Tinker Ph.D., “Sustainable Energy for the 21st Century”
Director - University of Texas Bureau of Economic Geology
- Keynote
- Moderated Q&A (Tinker, Cole)
Built Environment and Going from Here to There:
- Buildings (Jordan Clark Ph.D., Assistant Professor - Civil, Environmental, and Geodetic Engineering & Food, Agricultural, and Biological Engineering)
- Urban heat islands (Jean-Michel Guldmann Ph.D. Professor Emeritus/Academy Professor - City and Regional Planning Section, Knowlton School of Architecture)
- Transportation and Mobility (Giorgio Rizzoni Ph.D., Ford Motor Company Chair in ElectroMechanical Systems - Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering; Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering)
- Moderated Panel Discussion (Clark, Guldmann, Rizzoni, Cole)
Keynote: Michael Webber Ph.D., “Global Energy Trends and Transitions”
Chief Scientist and Technology Officer - ENGIE
Abstract: The worldwide energy sector is going through dramatic shifts in energy demand, end-uses, and sources. Population growth and economic growth are driving up total demand. Industrialization, urbanization, electrification and motorization are changing how we use energy. And a policy push for domestic, low-carbon and renewable fuels is changing our sources of energy. At the same time, we are entering an era where markets, technologies and policies are enabling dramatic increases in production of energy that is affecting global economies, the environment, and our national security posture. In parallel, our energy and information sectors are merging to form smarter energy systems and more energy-intensive information systems. For this talk, Dr. Webber will give a big-picture overview of global energy trends mixed in with anecdotes, historical snippets, and unexpected examples that will give a surprising look into the future of energy.
- Remarks
- Moderated Q&A (Webber, Cole)
What is Ohio State doing, and how can we do more?
- Ohio State EmPOWERment NSF NRT for a Sustainable Energy Future (Diane Boghrat, Program Coordinator - EmPOWERment NSF National Research Traineeship)
- Ohio State Engie-Axium Partnership (Thomas Wood, Energy Project Manager - Ohio State Business and Finance)
- Ohio State Climate Action Plan (Mike Shelton, Associate Director - Sustainability Institute)
- Moderated Panel Discussion: Engaging Decision-Making at University, State, and Federal Levels (Boghrat, Wood, Shelton, Bielicki)
Summary and Foreshadowing April Seminar Series (Elena Irwin Ph.D., Faculty Director - Sustainability Institute; Distinguished Professor of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences in Economics and Sustainability - Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics)