The Just Energy Transition

Abstract

Globally, we are not on pace to decarbonize the global economy by mid-century, nor are we on pace to meet the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). This failure will condemn future generations and ecosystems to disaster. To accelerate both goals, new integrative solutions are needed that build novel pathways and provide new incentives. We examine both the ‘electrify all’ theoretical frame, and the nexus of health care, energy, and gender empowerment and find multiple new holistic solutions that leverage one goal to accelerate another. We propose a new funding mechanism focused on climate-smart SDG strategies that leverage clean energy programs, social justice and inclusive growth, and a massive scale-up of biodiversity conservation.

Program

Lecture by Daniel Kammen, Distinguished Professor, UC Berkeley
Dialogue & networking with the audience

Speaker

Daniel Kammen, Distinguished Professor, UC Berkeley

Daniel Kammen is the James and Katherine Lau Distinguished Professor of Sustainability at the University of California, Berkeley, with parallel appointments in the Energy and Resources Group, the Goldman School of Public Policy, and the Department of Nuclear Engineering. His work is focused on decarbonization, energy access, and climate justice. He has served as Senior Advisor for Energy and Innovation at the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Kammen is a Coordinating Lead Author for the IPCC. He is the Co-Chair of the UC Berkeley Roundtable on Climate and Environmental Justice (http://ceej.berkeley.edu).

His research is focused on the science and policy of decarbonized energy systems, energy access, and environmental justice. He has published more than 450 papers, which are available on his laboratory website, the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory (RAEL, http://rael.berkeley.edu). His research is currently focused on the decarbonization of power systems around the world, energy access and social justice, materials science for low-carbon economies, big-data approaches to clean transportation, and the electrification of health facilities across Africa (HETA).

Kammen was educated in physics at Cornell and Harvard, and held postdoctoral positions at the California Institute of Technology and Harvard. Before moving to the University of California, Berkeley, he was Assistant Professor and Chair of the Science, Technology and Environmental Policy Program at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. Dr. Kammen has served as a contributing or coordinating lead author on various reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change since 1999. The IPCC shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.