22 March — Accelerating Decarbonization in the United States: Technology, Policy, and Societal Dimensions
Date: 22 March 2021
Time: 12:00pm EST
Location: via Zoom
Speaker: Dr. Chris Hendrickson
Topic: Accelerating Decarbonization in the United States: Technology, Policy, and Societal Dimensions
Abstract: The world today faces a transformation of its energy system, from one dominated by fossil fuel combustion to one with greatly reduced emissions of carbon dioxide, the primary anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG). To help policymakers, businesses, communities, and the public better understand what a transition to net-zero emissions would mean for the United States, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a committee of experts to investigate how the country could best decarbonize its energy system. The committee was tasked to assess the technological, social, and behavioral dimensions of policies and research activities required over the next 5 to 20 years to put the United States on a path to net-zero emissions by midcentury. This interim report of the committee provides a technical blueprint and policy manual for the U.S. energy system over the first critical 10 years of a 30-year effort to transform to net-zero GHG emissions. It focuses on “no-regrets” actions that would be robust to uncertainty about the system’s final technological mix, and hedging actions that can keep open as many viable paths to net-zero as possible.
