Resources

Spanning Boundaries: Aspen Global Change Institute Strategic Plan, 2020-2025 outlines how AGCI will build on the foundation of its first 30 years. The plan leverages AGCI’s key strengths and legacy as a convenor and collaborator, while also aligning future work with newly developing capacities that extend the Institute’s impact. In the following pages, we set forth five values, three goals, and three programs that embody AGCI’s mission and map a path to fulfilling it. In addition, we briefly describe key mechanisms for accomplishing this plan and make commitments to sustainability, broadly defined. Finally, we invite readers to join us by sharing your ideas, following our progress, offering partnership, or otherwise helping make this plan a reality.

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.