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Turning Paris into reality at the University of California

Nature Climate Change volume 8, pages 183–185 (2018)Cite this article

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The Paris Agreement highlights the need for local climate leadership. The University Of California’s approach to deep decarbonization offers lessons in efficiency, alternative fuels and electrification. Bending the emissions curve globally requires efforts that blend academic insights with practical solutions.

Over nearly three decades, diplomats and policymakers have been talking about global climate change while global emissions of warming gases have risen by one-third1. The 2015 Paris Agreement has offered an encouraging framework for reducing emissions. Yet pledges from countries under the Paris Agreement fall far short of the ambition to stop warming well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels2, and none of the large industrialized nations are on track to meet their pledges3.

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Fig. 1: Emissions and natural gas consumption at University of California (UC) campuses in 2015.
Fig. 2: UC’s recent rate of progress toward eliminating carbon from operations since 2009 (reliable data for all campuses is not available for prior years).

References

  1. IPCC Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change (eds Edenhofer, O. et al.) (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2014).

  2. The Emissions Gap Report 2017 (United Nations Environment Programme, 2019).

  3. Victor, D. G. et al. Nature 548, 25–27 (2017).

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  5. Meier, A. et al. University of California Strategies for Decarbonization: Replacing Natural Gas; http://doi.org/ckjc (UC TomKat Carbon Neutrality, 2018).

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  7. Natural Gas Consumption by End Use (US Energy Information Administration, 2017).

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  9. Overcoming Barriers to Carbon Neutrality (Carbon Neutrality Finance and Management Task Force, 2017).

  10. In a national first, UCI injects renewable hydrogen into campus power supply. UCI News (6 December 2016).

  11. Final Report — UC Carbon Neutral Buildings Study (Point Energy Innovations, 2017).

  12. Annual Report on Sustainable Practices (University of California, 2019).

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the TomKat Charitable Trust, which provided funding to convene our working group, and UCSB’s National Center of Ecological Analysis and Synthesis and Institute for Energy Efficiency, which co-administered the TomKat UC Carbon Neutrality project. Supplementary support was provided by the University of California Office of the President and by CITRIS and the Banatao Institute at the University of California. D.G.V. and A.A. were supported by the Deep Decarbonization Initiative of UCSD and by Electric Power Research Institute. S.J.D. was supported by NSF INFEWS Grant EAR 1639318. A.M. and R.Z.P. were supported by the Director, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, of the US Department of Energy under contract no. DE-AC02-05CH11231. We also thank the other members of the Natural Gas Exit Strategies Working Group: F. Bockmiller, J. Brouwer, C. Diamond, E. Dowey, J. Elliott, R. Eng, S. Kaffka, M. Kloss, L. McNeilly, I. Mezić, J. Morejohn, E. Ritzinger, S. Weissman and J. Williams.

TomKat Natural Gas Exit Strategies Working Group

Alan Meier10,11, Steven J. Davis8, David G. Victor1,2,3, Karl Brown7, Lisa McNeilly16, Mark Modera11, Rebecca Zarin Pass10, Jordan Sager13, David Weil14, David Auston4, Ahmed Abdulla1,2, Fred Bockmiller5, Wendell Brase5, Jack Brouwer6, Charles Diamond13, Emily Dowey17, John Elliott10, Rowena Eng13, Stephen Kaffka11, Carrie V. Kappel9, Margarita Kloss10, Igor Mezić13, Josh Morejohn11, David Phillips12, Evan Ritzinger13, Steven Weissman18 and Jim Williams19

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Global Policy & Strategy, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

    David G. Victor, Ahmed Abdulla, David G. Victor & Ahmed Abdulla

  2. Deep Decarbonization Initiative, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

    David G. Victor, Ahmed Abdulla, David G. Victor & Ahmed Abdulla

  3. The Brookings Institution, Washington, DC, USA

    David G. Victor & David G. Victor

  4. Institute for Energy Efficiency, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA

    David Auston & David Auston

  5. Office of Sustainability, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA

    Wendell Brase, Fred Bockmiller & Wendell Brase

  6. Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA

    Jack Brouwer & Jack Brouwer

  7. Berkeley Energy and Climate Institute, CITRIS and the Banatao Institute, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Karl Brown & Karl Brown

  8. Department of Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA

    Steven J. Davis & Steven J. Davis

  9. National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA

    Carrie V. Kappel & Carrie V. Kappel

  10. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Alan Meier, Rebecca Zarin Pass, Alan Meier, Rebecca Zarin Pass, John Elliott & Margarita Kloss

  11. University of California, Davis, CA, USA

    Alan Meier, Mark Modera, Alan Meier, Mark Modera, Stephen Kaffka & Josh Morejohn

  12. Office of the President, University of California, Oakland, CA, USA

    David Phillips & David Phillips

  13. University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA

    Jordan Sager, Jordan Sager, Charles Diamond, Rowena Eng, Igor Mezić & Evan Ritzinger

  14. University of California, San Diego, CA, USA

    David Weil & David Weil

  15. The City of Baltimore, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Lisa McNeilly

  16. Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA

    Emily Dowey

  17. Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Steven Weissman

  18. University of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Jim Williams

Author notes

  1. A full list of authors and their affiliations appears at the end of the paper.

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    1. David G. Victor
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    Consortia

    TomKat Natural Gas Exit Strategies Working Group

    • Alan Meier
    • , Steven J. Davis
    • , David G. Victor
    • , Karl Brown
    • , Lisa McNeilly
    • , Mark Modera
    • , Rebecca Zarin Pass
    • , Jordan Sager
    • , David Weil
    • , David Auston
    • , Ahmed Abdulla
    • , Fred Bockmiller
    • , Wendell Brase
    • , Jack Brouwer
    • , Charles Diamond
    • , Emily Dowey
    • , John Elliott
    • , Rowena Eng
    • , Stephen Kaffka
    • , Carrie V. Kappel
    • , Margarita Kloss
    • , Igor Mezić
    • , Josh Morejohn
    • , David Phillips
    • , Evan Ritzinger
    • , Steven Weissman
    •  & Jim Williams

    Corresponding author

    Correspondence to David G. Victor.

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    Victor, D.G., Abdulla, A., Auston, D. et al. Turning Paris into reality at the University of California. Nature Clim Change 8, 183–185 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0103-3

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