“The Challenges of a Rapid Transition to a Low-Carbon Energy Economy — Especially for the Developing World”
The next presentation in the Texas A&M Energy Institute Lecture Series, featuring Dr. Chris Greig, the director of the University of Queensland Energy Initiative, will be held on Monday, January 22, 2018 from 1:15 p.m. – 2:45 p.m. in the Frederick E. Giesecke Engineering Research Building (GERB) Third Floor Conference Room. The topic will be “The Challenges of a Rapid Transition to a Low-Carbon Energy Economy — Especially for the Developing World.”
Biography
Chris Greig leads both the UQ Energy Initiative and the Dow Centre for Sustainable Engineering Innovation.
Chris is a Chemical Engineer having obtained his degree and Ph.D. at the University of Queensland and is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering.
His 25-year industry career commenced as the founder of a successful process technology and contracting company which was later sold to a major international engineering company. Since then and prior to joining UQ, he held senior project and executive roles in the mining and energy industries internationally, including as CEO of ZeroGen, a large-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) project.
His main interests lie in Energy Transitions, Economics and Policy, Energy for Development, Mega-Project Implementation, and CCS.
Abstract
There is wide recognition that climate change is a critical risk and an urgent issue facing society. In the 25 years since the Rio Earth Summit, the world is still hoping to decarbonize the global economy. Transition pathways to decarbonize various sectors of the economy abound in the literature.
But in 1992, if we could have foreseen where the world would be today, we would surely have been alarmed and in denial. The Paris Agreement is our latest call to action. For infrastructure and energy systems, the Paris landmark year of 2030 is just around the corner, but then an even deeper transition awaits. As we look ahead to this decarbonization transition, many questions emerge.
Will we experience industrial bottlenecks — limits on critical material supplies, bottlenecks in manufacturing capacity and supply chains — or will human and organizational capacity be sufficient to deliver the massive and rapid transformation in systems?
What social, behavioral, and regulatory trends could affect the pace of change? How do we anticipate and overcome these bottlenecks and constraints?
The challenges are daunting for advanced countries like the USA and Europe, but in the developing world they are monumental as this look at India will reveal.
Engineering research, innovation, and execution lie at the heart of this transition. But, we must engage in new transdisciplinary approaches and collaboration between nations, institutions, industries, and communities to better understand these questions about the pace of the transition to a decarbonized economy.