Climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our times requiring coordinated and integrated efforts between science, engineering, and society. Current efforts to decarbonize are insufficient to address the climate change challenge. Carbon neutrality cannot be achieved through emission reduction strategies alone. We need scientific, technical and social innovation to both increase the pace and scale of decarbonization across all economic sectors, and to successfully add negative emission technologies into the action plan, and for that we need to train and build a diverse, transdisciplinary climate workforce focused on developing climate solutions. In addition, we must improve the exchange of scientific and technical information with non-academic stakeholders, while simultaneously raising awareness and support among the public.
Towards these goals, graduate students in School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) organized the 2023 Climate Sustainability Workshop, which was held at Spelman College, from September 10 to September 14.
The presentations and activities tied together the themes of climate justice and community engagement, climate science, climate modeling, and climate technology & solutions. Over 60 students at Spelman learned about the challenges and many opportunities in climate sustainability research. Spelman Provost Pamela E. Scott-Johnson, and Georgia Tech's President Angel Cabrera and President Emeritus Wayne Clough, among others, captivated the audience with engaging keynote speeches. Community partners introduced students to the challenges on the ground, and industry and city partners led us through their work to achieve net-zero at Delta and in Atlanta.
The workshop was organized by the graduate students in collaboration with faculty from Georgia Tech and Spelman College, and was supported by UCAR/NCAR, ORAU, the Strategic Energy Institute, DirACC, the Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems and the Ocean Science and Engineering Program at Georgia Tech.
The full program and links to the presentations and community participants can be found here.
Photo Caption: one of the round tables on Tuesday (Climate Science's Day)
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Annalisa Bracco
Georgia Institute of Technology
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