(373b) Refocusing on What Is Needed to Solve the Energy / Climate Problem

Ten years ago the Paris Agreement formally declared the international consensus that it is a high priority to slow climate change. Yet despite that unusual level of accord, anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are higher today than they were in 2015, and there is not yet a generally accepted technical plan to achieve the Paris Agreement’s goals. Chemical engineers are heavily involved in the products with the biggest climate impacts – fuels, commodity materials, fertilizer – and also in many of the most promising new technologies (e.g. biomass conversion, CO2 capture, electrochemical solutions including batteries and fuel cells). Society is counting on the engineering community to propose workable technical solutions - ideally solutions with comparable performance, convenience, and cost, but much lower greenhouse gas emissions, than the existing commercial processes and products. Unfortunately, we have not yet developed many solutions that meet all these requirements. Using several examples from recent research, I will propose ways the chemical engineering community can be more efficient in identifying and accurately evaluating potential solutions, and in providing clear assessments of various options that can inform decision-making and reasoned public discussion of the path forward. Improved software tools and shared databases can help us address the energy / climate problem more consistently and rapidly.