Brown University's path to net-zero.
Climate change is
currently one of the biggest threat of 21st century to the planet
and public health. It is essential to take actions against this issue because
if nothing is done people will experience significant changing of weather
patterns, high temperatures such as heat waves, natural calamities like floods,
wildfire, drought, increase in sea levels and much more. These threats are not
just limited but may also affect the health of not only humans but also plants
and animals. Climate change will also affect future employability,
infrastructure and global economy negatively. To take urgent action on climate
change is the 13th goal of the United Nations Sustainable
Development Goal. The key targets of SDG
to achieve this goal is to help countries strengthen their infrastructure’s
reliance, improve their adaptations to extreme impacts of climate change and by
also creating awareness and providing climate changes education.
The greenhouse gas
emissions are the leading cause and contributor to the climate change and it
continues to grow at a very fast pace. These are the gases that are released
into the Earth’s atmosphere and is responsible for raising the temperature of
the planet. The United States of America is the largest per capita greenhouse
gas emissions producer. The most amount of greenhouse gases come from
electricity and heat production such as burning of fossil fuels. Deforestation,
agriculture, transportation etc. are some of other major contributor of the
emissions.
To fight against
climate change requires involvement requires a combine effort from everyone
including governments, businesses, communities and individuals. Brown
University is aware that to avoid the most disastrous effects of climate change
for the world requires reduction in greenhouse gas emissions as quickly as
possible. To reduce these emissions, Brown University has a strategic plan
which will allow them to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by
2040 and is already on path to reduce it by 75% by 2025. To execute this plan
Brown has already collaborated and partnered with multiple energy providers and
Energy Development Partners and has finalized two renewable energy projects
that will produce enough solar and wind energy to completely shut down all
electricity consumption on campus. The first project of Brown University is to
create a high capacity solar generation project across a 240-acre land. This project will produce enough electricity
that it will allow Brown University to reduce their electric consumption
produced by fossil fuels by 70% annually.
A former sand and gravel mining site in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, will be transformed into 240 acres of solar arrays capable of generating 50 megawatts of direct current. Photo by Brown University
The second renewable
energy project is a wind power project being developed in Texas. This project
is set to produce enough energy that Brown University will be offsetting 100%
of campus electricity and will enable the university to reach net-zero carbon
emissions by 2040.
It is estimated
that along with these two agreements and on-campus efforts, Brown is set to
reduce gas emissions by approximately 27,000 metric tons per year by the mid
2020’s. With bold actions, commitments and partnerships to reduce on-campus
emissions, Brown want to establish itself as the leader in addressing climate
challenges of the 21st century.
References: -
Center
for Climate and Energy Solutions (2020). Global Emissions. [online]
Center for Climate and Energy Solutions. Available at:
https://www.c2es.org/content/international-emissions/#:~:text=Most%20of%20the%20world.
Brown
University. (n.d.). New Texas wind farm will help Brown offset campus
electricity use. [online] Available at:
https://www.brown.edu/news/2020-06-11/wind [Accessed 11 Mar. 2024].
Brown
University. (n.d.). Solar and wind energy projects expected to offset
100 percent of Brown’s on-campus electricity use. [online] Available at:
https://www.brown.edu/news/2019-01-17/renewable [Accessed 11 Mar. 2024].
Sustainability
& Resiliency | Brown University. (2020). Reduce Emissions to
Net-Zero. [online] Available at:
https://sustainability.brown.edu/commitments/reduce-emissions [Accessed 11 Mar.
2024].
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