A series of keynote presentations on "Roadmapping the Clean Energy Transition" from leading faculty at Northwestern University and the University of Toronto Monday, Oct. 2 and Tuesday, Oct. 3 on the Evanston campus, will mark the launch of the University of Toronto-Northwestern Decarbonization Alliance, a global social innovation hub catalyzing dialogue and research on progressive decarbonization.
Hosted by the Northwestern Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs and Northwestern Paula M. Trienens Institute for Sustainability and Energy, the hybrid series will take place at the Buffett Institute, 1800 Sherman Ave., Evanston, at 1 p.m. (CT) on Monday and 8:30 a.m. (CT) on Tuesday.
"The launch of this social innovation hub is a critical step forward for advancing the type of global intellectual and scientific leadership that shows promise for generating solutions to increasingly complex problems like climate change," said Annelise Riles, Northwestern University Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs executive director and associate provost for Global Affairs.
Northwestern and the University of Toronto seek to join together their strengths and resources as two global leaders in sustainability R&D, driving innovation and reducing environmental impacts of materials and energy to come closer to the global net-zero emissions target. The Alliance will span disciplines and generate joint research.
"By melding together insights into decarbonization from the social sciences, physical sciences, engineering, humanities and other realms, researchers in the Alliance aim to develop new modes of thinking about sustainability, develop the next generation of technologies needed to achieve net-zero emissions and foster widespread adoption of those technologies across sectors," said Professor Ted Sargent, co-executive director of the Trienens Institute for Sustainability and Energy at Northwestern.
The event will include - among others - lectures titled, "Bending the Arc of Climate Change and Climate Solutions Towards Justice: Ideas for How Science Can Advance Climate Justice" by Northwestern political scientist Kimberly Suiseeya, and "Routes to Generating and Deploying Hydrogen for Energy in a Decarbonized Future" by Northwestern materials scientist Sossina Haile.
The event is open to the media. Registration is required to attend.
