Deep Decarbonization

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

As climate change accelerates its devastating impacts, the world faces the enormous challenge of decarbonizing the global economy. Every sector - energy, transportation, industry, agriculture and others - will need to implement major changes to bring greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by mid-century and avoid climate catastrophe. The good news is that many technologies and practices already exist that can deliver a lot of the emissions reductions that we need. Unfortunately, the pathway to using them at scale faces many hurdles that are political, technological, and economic in nature. In this class we will examine the options for deeply decarbonizing all major sectors of the global economy. We'll look at technologies such as renewable and nuclear power, low-carbon hydrogen and ammonia, carbon dioxide recycling, carbon removal, and geo-engineering to understand the role they could play in a decarbonized economy of the future. In parallel, we'll study the current and future costs and environmental impacts of using these technologies, as well as the policies, regulations and other factors that affect their widespread adoption. Along the way we'll learn key quantitative analysis tools such as life-cycle carbon accounting, techno-economic analysis and technology cost forecasting that underpin our understanding of how climate-relevant technologies will evolve in the future.