Resources

This infographic was derived as a final product of AGCI's 2018 workshop on Technologies and Policies to Decarbonize the Industry Sector. It accompanied the open-access publication in Applied Energy co-authored by the workshop's participants. Industry generated 33% of global emissions in 2014, but 90% of these emissions come from a dozen industries. Technology and policy options can reach net zero industry emissions by 2070. Steel, chemicals, and cement alone generate >55% of global industry emissions. The workshop and its publication highlight the top strategies for decarbonizing global industry, which boil down to a three-pronged approach: 1) Reducing material consumption, 2) lowering energy use and shifting to clean energy, and 3) targeting the top-emitting industries. Policies can incentivize the transition. Companies that invest in the clean energy transition will profit from investing now. To dive deeper on decarbonization strategies for the industry sector, check out the full publication and explore the Agenda + Presentation on the workshop webpage.

It is a generational challenge to meet the world’s energy requirements, while remaining within the bounds of acceptable costs and environmental impacts. To this end, substantial research has explored various energy futures on a global scale. These questions and activities walk undergraduate and graduate level students through exercises that explore the pace and scale of the global energy transition that will unfold over the coming century.

The questions draw on the AGCI Energy Table - an open-access, comprehensive energy reference featuring data on the availability, production, costs, and growth rates of energy sources and storage technologies currently in use or development. Energy sources include coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear, solar, wind, hydropower, ocean, geothermal and biomass. Each cell in the Energy Table provides data from recent peer reviewed publications and major institutional reports (such as the International Energy Administration), with hyperlinked references provided.

It is a generational challenge to meet the world’s energy requirements, while remaining within the bounds of acceptable costs and environmental impacts. To this end, substantial research has explored various energy futures on a global scale. These questions and activities walk undergraduate and graduate level students through exercises that explore the pace and scale of the global energy transition that will unfold over the coming century.

The questions draw on the AGCI Energy Table - an open-access, comprehensive energy reference featuring data on the availability, production, costs, and growth rates of energy sources and storage technologies currently in use or development. Energy sources include coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear, solar, wind, hydropower, ocean, geothermal and biomass. Each cell in the Energy Table provides data from recent peer reviewed publications and major institutional reports (such as the International Energy Administration), with hyperlinked references provided.

The decline of Arctic sea ice is an integral part of anthropogenic climate change. Sea-ice loss is already having a significant
impact on Arctic communities and ecosystems. Its role as a cause of climate changes outside of the Arctic has also attracted
much scientific interest. Evidence is mounting that Arctic sea-ice loss can affect weather and climate throughout the Northern
Hemisphere. The remote impacts of Arctic sea-ice loss can only be properly represented using models that simulate interactions
among the ocean, sea ice, land and atmosphere. A synthesis of six such experiments with different models shows consistent
hemispheric-wide atmospheric warming, strongest in the mid-to-high-latitude lower troposphere; an intensification of the
wintertime Aleutian Low and, in most cases, the Siberian High; a weakening of the Icelandic Low; and a reduction in strength
and southward shift of the mid-latitude westerly winds in winter. The atmospheric circulation response seems to be sensitive to
the magnitude and geographic pattern of sea-ice loss and, in some cases, to the background climate state. However, it is unclear
whether current-generation climate models respond too weakly to sea-ice change. We advocate for coordinated experiments
that use different models and observational constraints to quantify the climate response to Arctic sea-ice loss.