Deep Decar­boniza­tion Path­ways: Tak­ing 2°C Seriously

Dr. Jim Williams will dis­cuss his recent research on deep reduc­tions in green­house gas emis­sions in Cal­i­for­nia, the US, and glob­ally, to lev­els con­sis­tent with lim­it­ing anthro­pogenic warm­ing to 2°C or less. He will describe how this work on dif­fer­ent geo­graph­i­cal scales is linked by a com­mon ana­lyt­i­cal and strate­gic approach to the ques­tion of energy sys­tem trans­for­ma­tion, the cen­tral chal­lenge in deep decar­boniza­tion. In addi­tion to tech­ni­cal results, Jim will dis­cuss pol­icy impli­ca­tions in the run-up to COP-21 and the US pres­i­den­tial elec­tion. Time per­mit­ting, he will dis­cuss how the ERGian threads run­ning through this work – meth­ods, strate­gies, peo­ple, atti­tudes – are help­ing to reshape the cli­mate pol­icy dis­course in the US and around the world.