Project Highlights

The U.S. industrial sector is responsible for nearly a quarter of the nation’s climate pollution. But the Inflation Reduction Act largely left out heavy industry, and the sector is falling behind. However, near-term actions can cut pollution without a new bill, especially in sectors that use low- to medium-temperature heat. We are developing engineering process systems archetypes to better understand industrial processes in the pulp and paper, food and beverage, and chemicals sectors. We will translate these technical results into publicly available datasets and webtools for use by policymakers, researchers, and advocates. Then, we will create a policy roadmap to accelerate industrial decarbonization in the next 10 years. This work is supported by the Climate Imperative Foundation and the U.S. Energy Foundation. 

Communities must be central to the clean energy transition. We draw on our unique blend of social science and technical modeling expertise equitably expand clean energy. With funding from the Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Evolution and Diffusion studies (SEEDS 4), we are working with environmental justice groups and the solar industry to build community acceptance for large-scale solar projects.

But as we clean up the power sector, it is critical that disadvantaged communities aren’t stuck with polluting technologies and higher energy bills. With funding from the UC Climate Action Initiative, we are collaborating with partners from UC Berkeley and UC San Diego to design a clean and resilient electricity system for California's disadvantaged communities. We are using cutting-edge survey techniques to uplift community perspectives and design a power grid that works for all of California. 

The 2035 Initiative is focused on phasing out fossil fuels at the speed demanded by the climate crisis.  We reach out to frontline communities to understand how they are impacted both by pollution from fossil fuels and policies meant to phase them out. We develop policies and empower political coalitions that will rapidly ramp down fossil fuel extraction and consumption. In partnership with the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), we have released multiple reports on investor influence over national oil companies. Other projects model the impacts of oil and gas policies to inform state legislative efforts, create roadmaps for plugging aging and abandoned oil and gas wells, and implement financial incentives for improved methane monitoring at oil and gas facilities. 

We are developing the world’s first global maps of climate opinion and concern. These maps track attitudes and perspectives on climate change in over 140 countries around the world, and in over 2,000 subnational regions. We expect to launch these maps in mid-2024 and are coordinating a global media push to broadcast our findings. We will also publish annual updates for the next decade, allowing the global public to easily visualize shifts in climate opinion over time. This project is supported by the 128 Collective.