This grant is in partial support of a workshop on Engineering Response to Climate Change: Adaptation, Mitigation, and Sustainability,to be held in mid-September 2010 in the Washington, DC area. The workshop will focus on the integration of mitigation and adaptation approaches and will emphasize the centrality of engineering in developing a sustainable technological roadmap for climate change response. The goal of the workshop is to identify key engineering challenges, needed advances, and systems level approaches to reduce future vulnerability to climate change. The workshop will focus on the U.S., but with the perspective of a global framework. The participants will be drawn from multiple disciplines, including engineers, climate change scientists, ecosystem biologists, and public policy researchers. Workshop sessions are designed to be interactive, cross-cutting, and focused on outcomes. The workshop report will address conclusions from the workshop including research frontiers and identification of research needs in adaptation, mitigation, and sustainability in response to climate change, from the perspective of engineering response. A new website will be created for the materials for the workshop and the workshop final report.
Outline of NSF Workshop Recommendations (Intellectual Merit): Workshop Consensus: Given the relentless growth in greenhouse gas emissions driven by population growth and an increasing demand for energy intensive goods, foods and services, the options and potential effectiveness of key social and engineering (technology) responses should be determined. The workshop report focused on the integration of these responses and will emphasize the necessity of developing a sustainable "roadmap" for climate change. Also, given climate change’s projected impact on regional precipitation and evaporation patterns and also that energy technologies require water and fresh water generation requires energy, the key energy/water/climate relationships must be assessed for uncertainty and risk. Integration of engineering, social, policy, and economic perspectives must occur at the inception of the approaches. There Will be Climate Change: GHG emissions are increasing driven by economic and population dynamics Climate change is occurring Potential warming of 4o C this century Large range of uncertainty Water resources are increasingly at risk Need for a revolution in ways energy is generated and used (efficiency) Fundamental cultural, social and economic changes may be necessary The Relative Roles of Social and Engineering (Technology) Responses to Climate Change The relationship between emissions and climate change The role that existing and evolving models can play in understanding the effectiveness of technology and social responses The role that technology can play in alternative energy resources and efficiency improvement across many sectors of the economy The role that social changes can play in developed and developing countries Social/Cultural Responses: Opportunities, Effectiveness and Implementation The range of cultural change options from modest to fundamental Examples of cultural change options and their potential effectiveness The potential roles of monetary incentives, political processes, education, smart-grids and other approaches in facilitating social changes; real world experience with such measures to date Assessing the economic policy implications of climate uncertainty Mitigation Technologies: Status, Effectiveness, Gaps and Opportunities The state of the art of key mitigation technologies for energy production and use Current status of mitigation technology research, development and deployment (RD&D) worldwide Examples of potentially transformational technologies: which offer the greatest potential for cost effectiveness and major emission reductions over current state-of-the art technologies? what are the most effective venues for developing such transformational technologies? The current knowledge base for the viability of geo-engineering options Can development and utilization of geoengineering options play a constructive mitigation role by allowing time for the necessary technology development and cultural changes Realistic roles for renewable, nuclear, and low carbon power generation technologies to play in a carbon constrained world (what are the key inhibiting factors and how can they be overcome?) Scope and depth of the current global research, development and demonstration programs: are they consistent with GHG emission reduction requirements? If not, what would be an appropriate research portfolio with associated funding levels? (for example, is the current global Carbon Capture and Storage and Sequestration [CCS] program likely to yield near term commercial technologies for coal, gas and industrial sources in the developing as well as the developed economies? What would an optimum CCS program look like?) Assuming an optimum RD&D program; what should be the federal versus the private sector role? Also, what is the appropriate balance between fundamental, pilot scale and demonstration research? What lessons can be learned from the multi-billion dollar clean coal RD&D program conducted by the US in the 1980’s? For GHGs other than CO2, what are the mitigation opportunities? Can mitigation of the short lived climate forcers (methane, black carbon, ozone) buy us time in deploying low carbon technologies? What are the environmental issues associated with key emerging energy technologies? Energy/Water/Climate Issues Global change’s potential impact on fresh water availability and the uncertainty in such projections Energy and water co-dependency in economies Water supply and pollution challenges Outreach and Dissemination (Broader Impacts): This workshop report will be distributed to NSF program managers, workshop participants, and other relevant federal agencies and laboratories. A website has been created for the materials for the workshop and the full NSF workshop report [www.engrcc.org]. Several seminars have been conducted by the PIs ar various locations. Dr. Schrader conducted a ½ day workshop at the Tampa July 2011 Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP) Research and Education Conference. Approximately 40 attendees participated. A full-day symposium was held at the University of Arizona on September 19, 2011 to discuss the outcomes of the workshop. The results of the workshop were also presented at the "Climate Adaptation Futures: Second InternationalClimate Change Adaptation Conference 2012" on May 29-31, 2012. The workshop organizers are developing a book based on the workshop topics with the EDGE Book Advisory Committee. "The Edge" [www.law.arizona.edu/depts/environmentallaw/edge/default.cfm] aims to disseminate cutting-edge scientific knowledge in a form and style that engages leaders in dialogue and encourages policy efforts aimed at resolving the leading environmental issues of our times.
