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climate breakthroughs from UC research </li> </ol> </nav> </div> <div id="block-uc-page-title" class="l-container block block-core block-page-title-block"> <h1 class="page-title"><span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">A year of climate breakthroughs from UC research</span> </h1> </div> <div id="block-addtoanybuttons" class="l-container share-links block block-addtoany block-addtoany-block"> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_24 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/year-climate-breakthroughs-uc-research" data-a2a-title="A year of climate breakthroughs from UC research"><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_linkedin"></a><a class="a2a_button_reddit"></a></span> </div> <div id="block-uc-system-main" class="block block-system block-system-main-block"> <article data-history-node-id="11173" role="article" about="/news/year-climate-breakthroughs-uc-research" class="node node--type-longform node--view-mode-full"> <div class="node__content"> <div class="l-container field--name-subtitle">Climate progress is real and it's happening right here in California. Explore 10 practical climate solutions from UC labs.</div> <div class="l-container content--meta"><span class="article-date">November 13, 2024</span><br><span class="byline-label article-byline">Article by: </span><span class="byline">Julia Busiek</span> <div class="share-links mobile-only"> </div> </div> <div data-history-node-id="11173" class="l-container field--name-field-image banner-style-1" > <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/longform/images/solar-canal-hero-cop29.3.jpg" width="1920" height="760" alt="A rendering of solar panels covering an agricultural canal" typeof="foaf:Image" /> </div> <div class="l-container field--body"> </div> <div class="article-section-container"> <div class="field field--name-field-article-section field--type-entity-reference-revisions field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--article-section paragraph--view-mode--default display--"> <div class="l-container article-section"> <div class="section-content"> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-paragraph-body field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p class="content-subheading"><strong>The 29th annual U.N. climate convention, or <a href="https://unfccc.int/cop29" target="_blank">COP29</a>, kicks off this week in Azerbaijan. Representatives from nearly 200 nations will spend the next two weeks negotiating goals for curbing greenhouse gas emissions and dealing with upheaval caused by climate change</strong></p> <p>Nearly three decades in, these annual meetings have gotten humanity pointed toward a more livable future. But many experts say the stately pace of change and modest scope of actual commitments have yet to catch up to the escalating destruction caused by a warming climate. “We’re making a lot of progress, but we're not yet solving the climate problem,” <a href="https://www.kpbs.org/podcasts/kpbs-midday-edition/cop28-takeaways-from-the-united-nations-climate-conference" target="_blank">said</a> David Victor, professor of public policy and co-director of the Deep Decarbonization Initiative at UC San Diego in an interview with KPBS. “Emissions are still going up. They have to come down.”</p> <figure role="group" class="caption caption-drupal-media"><div class="media media--type-image media--view-mode-default" data-align="center"> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/2024-11/cop29-opener.jpg" width="1024" height="683" alt="A room full of people sit at desks facing the front of the room, all wearing headsets to translate languages" typeof="foaf:Image" /></div> </div> <figcaption>Delegates gather for the opening ceremony of COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Monday, November 11. <em>Credit: Sean Gallup/Getty</em></figcaption></figure><p>Thankfully, Californians aren’t waiting for global governments to act. Regardless of the outcomes from COP29 and the role of the federal government in global and national climate policy going forward, California and UC are working flat out to solve the climate crisis. The state has passed some of the world’s <a href="https://www.law.berkeley.edu/research/clee/research/climate/climate-policy-dashboard/" target="_blank">most</a> ambitious and effective greenhouse gas emissions laws. And even since the last time global delegates <a href="https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/health-finally-priority-cop28-will-it-spur-faster-climate-action" target="_blank">met for COP28 in Dubai</a>, the University of California has generated a burst of new solutions to some of the thorniest climate challenges we face.</p> <p>If news from Azerbaijan has you looking for signs of urgent climate action, look no further. Read on to learn about 10 of the biggest climate breakthroughs to come out of the University of California in the past year.</p> <h2>1. An easier way to bulk up the electricity grid</h2> <p>America’s energy sector has seen two promising trends in recent years: utility companies are generating more clean electricity, and more people are switching from fossil fuel-powered cars and appliances to zero-emissions electric options. But there’s a catch: the electrical grid isn’t big enough to deliver to customers all the new clean power coming online. And the standard approach to adding grid capacity — building more towers to run more and bigger wires — is expensive and takes a long time.</p> <p>In a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2411207121" target="_blank">study published in September 2024</a>, UC Berkeley scientists found a way to <a href="https://nature.berkeley.edu/news/2024/09/advanced-conductors-provide-path-grid-expansion" target="_blank">break through the bottleneck</a>. Rather than build a bunch of new transmission towers and lines, utility companies could upgrade the lines on existing towers, swapping out the steel-core lines manufactured in the 20th century for state-of-the-art carbon fiber instead. This relatively quick and affordable fix could double transmission capacity in the U.S. within a decade and save ratepayers $85 billion.</p> <figure role="group" class="caption caption-drupal-media"><div class="media media--type-image media--view-mode-default" data-align="center"> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/2024-11/grid-reconductoring.jpg" width="2121" height="1414" alt="Two powerline operators point up at a high tension tower" typeof="foaf:Image" /></div> </div> <figcaption>A study from UC Berkeley found a cheaper, easier way to add capacity to the electrical grid. <em>Credit: Getty/Sirisak Boakaew</em></figcaption></figure><p>“We were pretty astonished by how big of an increase in capacity you can get by reconductoring,” Amol Phadke, senior scientist at the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley, told the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/09/climate/electric-grid-more-power.html" target="_blank">New York Times</a>. “It’s not the only thing we need to do to upgrade the grid, but it can be a major part of the solution.”</p> </div> </div> <div class="section-image"> </div> <aside class="section-highlight bg-color__blue-light" aria-labelledby="header-6350"> <h3 class="highlight-title field--name-field-highlight-title" id="header-6350">How three UC campuses are phasing out fossil fuels</h3> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-highlight-body field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p><a href="https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/university-california-adopts-new-stronger-climate-action-goals">UC’s climate policy</a> commits the entire 10-campus system to eliminating greenhouse gas emissions no later than 2045, aligning the University with the <a href="https://www.gov.ca.gov/2022/11/16/california-releases-worlds-first-plan-to-achieve-net-zero-carbon-pollution/">State’s target date for net zero carbon emission.</a></p> <figure role="group" class="caption caption-drupal-media"><div class="media media--type-image media--view-mode-default" data-align="center"> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/2024-01/2022-big-shift-3.jpg" width="1200" height="801" alt="A person in construction safety gear operates a large yellow excavator above a deep trench with pipes laying parallel." typeof="foaf:Image" /></div> </div> <figcaption>This was the scene around UC Davis in 2022, during the first phase of the shift from fossil fuels. When all phases are complete, pipes will carry hot water instead of steam, which is more efficient and safer to maintain. The shift will save energy, take advantage of renewably generated electricity and reduce fossil fuels and water use. <em>Credit: UC Davis/Kat Kerlin.</em></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/how-three-uc-campuses-are-phasing-out-fossil-fuels">Find out how sustainability experts at three campuses are making progress toward that ambitious goal.</a></p> </div> </aside> </div> </div> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--article-section paragraph--view-mode--default display--"> <div class="l-container article-section"> <div class="section-content"> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-paragraph-body field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><h2>2. The ‘no-brainer’ solution to expanding solar energy</h2> <p>As renewable energy infrastructure expands, it’s running into rising opposition from people who don’t want to lose farmland, habitat or views to giant wind and solar farms. A <a href="https://emp.lbl.gov/news/larg-e-scale-wind-and-solar" target="_blank">January 2024 study</a> from the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, found that community opposition has helped tank about a third of all wind and solar projects proposed in California in the past five years.</p> <p>UC Merced researchers are joining an effort to ease solar siting woes. In April 2024, a project was announced to build solar panels over a stretch of the Delta-Mendota Canal in Merced County. Funded in part by the U.S. Department of the Interior through the federal Inflation Reduction Act, the project demonstrates a new approach to siting solar panels that has less effect on farmland and habitat, and that also saves water by preventing evaporation. UC Merced is also part of the state-funded <a href="https://www.tid.org/about-tid/current-projects/project-nexus/" target="_blank" title="https://www.tid.org/about-tid/current-projects/project-nexus/">Project Nexus</a>, the first pilot project in California to build solar arrays over canals, with Turlock Irrigation District in Stanislaus County.</p> <figure role="group" class="caption caption-drupal-media"><div class="media media--type-remote-video media--view-mode-default" data-align="center"> <div class="field field--name-field-media-oembed-video field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item"><iframe src="/media/oembed?url=https%3A//youtu.be/1hcsFVZbV5w%3Fsi%3DxpE2xox9tQLRliMj&max_width=1200&max_height=720&hash=ONkGgtBlYgVIPgkb688o_uiB0yjjoA4aXqH7rVNhTKg" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="" width="1200" height="720" class="media-oembed-content" title="Using solar panels like THIS is a no-brainer! California’s doing it"></iframe> </div> </div> <figcaption>Hear from the UC Merced researchers who are helping solve California's solar conundrum. Want more like this?<a href="https://www.youtube.com/@fig1"> Subscribe to Fig. 1</a>, our video series about big ideas and the brilliant UC minds behind them. </figcaption></figure><p paraeid="{d5ba4308-80aa-48ff-b106-33bd8c9d5b6c}{130}" paraid="732442170">UC Merced researchers found that building solar canopies over all 4,000 miles of California’s agricultural canals could generate 13 gigawatts of electricity, enough to power a city the size of Los Angeles for nine months a year and<a href="https://www.energy.ca.gov/publications/2021/2021-sb-100-joint-agency-report-achieving-100-percent-clean-electricity" target="_blank"> more than half </a>of the new solar power we’d need by 2030 to meet the state’s decarbonization goals. And covering canals could save enough water to meet the annual demands of 2 million people. “This is a no-brainer. This is common sense,” <a href="https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/new-canal-project-expands-uc-merced-solar-research" target="_blank">said</a> Calif. Governor Gavin Newsom at a groundbreaking ceremony.</p> </div> </div> <div class="section-image"> </div> <aside class="section-highlight bg-color__blue-pale" aria-labelledby="header-6340"> <h3 class="highlight-title field--name-field-highlight-title" id="header-6340">More ways we're scaling up renewable energy</h3> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-highlight-body field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p><a href="https://today.ucsd.edu/story/heat-waves-amplify-existing-inequities-meet-the-researchers-working-to-change-that#:~:text=Engineering%20resilience%20in%20power%20grids" target="_blank">The power grid is vulnerable to climate disasters.</a> A UC San Deigo scholar is studying how to keep the lights on.</p> <p><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/20/climate/nuclear-fusion-energy-breakthrough-replicate-climate/index.html" target="_blank">Another step closer to limitless clean energy:</a> Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists replicate historic nuclear fusion breakthrough three times.</p> </div> </aside> </div> </div> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--article-section paragraph--view-mode--default display--"> <div class="l-container article-section"> <div class="section-content"> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-paragraph-body field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><h2>3. Eliminating carbon emissions from concrete</h2> <p>About<a href="https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/45095/global_status_report_buildings_construction_2023.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y" target="_blank">40 percent</a> of the carbon released into the atmosphere each year comes from our buildings, including eight percent from making new cement, a key ingredient in concrete. This year, engineers at UCLA invented a way to make cement almost carbon-free.</p> <p>Traditional cement manufacturing involves decomposing limestone in a kiln heated by coal or natural gas. As it breaks down, the limestone releases a lot of carbon, and the kiln devours fossil fuels, emitting even more. The new method, which its inventors named ZeroCAL, dissolves the limestone in water. This avoids emissions from firing the kiln, and the carbon in the limestone can be filtered out of the solution, instead of being released into the air as a gas. The whole process is designed to work with existing cement plants, meaning the switch could be made quickly and affordably.</p> <figure role="group" class="caption caption-drupal-media"><div class="media media--type-image media--view-mode-default" data-align="center"> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/2024-11/ZeroCAL-Hero_mid.jpg" width="1152" height="768" alt="A diagram illustration show inputs and outputs of the ZeroCAL process" typeof="foaf:Image" /></div> </div> <figcaption>The ZeroCAL approach, which can be integrated within the existing cement-production process, uses limestone to produce calcium hydroxide, which emits no carbon dioxide when burned to produce lime for cement. <em>Credit: Adrienne Johnston/UCLA</em></figcaption></figure><p paraeid="{0593ae17-8e56-4250-b964-d07ad065227c}{96}" paraid="1859466646">“Mitigating climate change demands urgent, paradigm-shifting actions across many areas to decarbonize our society,” <a href="https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/ucla-engineers-process-to-decarbonize-cement-production" target="_blank">said</a> ZeroCAL co-inventor <a href="https://samueli.ucla.edu/people/fabian-rosner/" target="_blank">Fabian Rosner,</a> an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at UCLA whose research is funded in part by the U.S. Department of Energy. “We believe the ZeroCAL process offers a unique pathway to enable accessible and rapidly scalable decarbonization of cement production in a way we have not previously considered.”</p> </div> </div> <div class="section-image"> </div> <aside class="section-highlight bg-color__gold-light" aria-labelledby="header-6342"> <h3 class="highlight-title field--name-field-highlight-title" id="header-6342">More ways to reduce emissions from buildings and construction</h3> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-highlight-body field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><figure role="group" class="caption caption-drupal-media"><div class="media media--type-image media--view-mode-default" data-align="center"> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/2024-11/royce-infrared.jpg" width="1133" height="684" alt="Side by side images of Royce Hall, one normal and one in infrared" typeof="foaf:Image" /></div> </div> <figcaption><em>Credit: UCLA</em></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/researchers-discover-mechanism-cool-buildings-saving-energy" target="_blank">UCLA researchers discover new mechanism to cool buildings while saving energy</a>: Coating walls and windows with this new material can reduce the need for A/C.</p> <p><a href="https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2023/06/425751/how-going-under-getting-greener" target="_blank">How ‘going under’ is getting greener:</a> Anesthesia can be up to 2,500 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. UC San Francisco doctors are leading a national movement to protect patients and the planet.</p> </div> </aside> </div> </div> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--article-section paragraph--view-mode--default display--"> <div class="l-container article-section"> <div class="section-content"> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-paragraph-body field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><h2>4. Jump-starting California’s hydrogen economy</h2> <p>Another <a href="https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/media_gstc/FACT_SHEET_Climate_Change.pdf">quarter</a> of humanity’s annual greenhouse gas emissions comes from transportation. Switching out gas-powered cars for electric vehicles could eliminate <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/co2-emissions-from-transport#:~:text=The%20data%20is%20sourced%20from,comes%20from%20trucks%20carrying%20freight.">about half</a> of the carbon emissions attributable to transportation; National Science Foundation-supported research from UC Berkeley published in April shows the <a href="https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/our-work/programs/advanced-clean-cars-program">state’s lead</a> in electric vehicle adoption <a href="https://news.berkeley.edu/2024/04/04/evs-are-lowering-bay-area-s-carbon-footprint/">is already lowering local carbon emissions</a>. But other types of transport, like big rigs, cargo ships and planes, don’t lend themselves to existing battery technology.</p> <p>One possible solution to heavy duty transport decarbonization is hydrogen: when it’s fed into a device called a fuel cell, hydrogen generates electricity and emits only heat and harmless water vapor. Energy experts say hydrogen has great potential to cut global carbon emissions from heavy transport and keep pollutants out of our air and water, but the technology hasn’t caught on in the U.S.</p> </div> </div> <div class="section-image"> </div> </div> </div> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--article-section paragraph--view-mode--default display--"> <div class="l-container article-section"> <div class="section-content"> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-paragraph-body field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Thanks to UC, that’s finally starting to change. In July, the U.S. Department of Energy <a href="https://archesh2.org/arches-officially-launches/" target="_blank">launched</a> an effort to jump-start California’s hydrogen industry. The <a href="https://archesh2.org/" target="_blank">Alliance for Renewable Clean Hydrogen Energy Systems,</a> or ARCHES, will steer an estimated $12 billion to jump-start a coordinated network of hydrogen fuel producers, purveyors and consumers up and down the state.</p> <p>Some of the world’s leading hydrogen experts work at UC, and the university <a href="https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/renewable-clean-hydrogen-power-coming-california-heres-what-you-need-know" target="_blank">led the campaign</a> to establish ARCHES. Altogether, the projects will eliminate 2 million metric tons of carbon emissions every year, equivalent to taking 445,000 gas-powered cars off the road. They’ll create over 200,000 new <a href="https://www.energy.gov/eere/good-jobs-and-workforce-development" target="_blank">good jobs</a>. And by swapping diesel combustion engines spewing toxic exhaust for zero-pollution fuel cells, Californians will save nearly $3 billion in health care and related costs annually.</p> <h2>5. and 6. Two approaches to zero-carbon jet fuel</h2> <p>California’s growing hydrogen economy figures into a strategy proposed by UC Riverside engineering professor Mihri Ozkan to decarbonize air travel, which is responsible for nearly three percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. In a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004224003754?utm_campaign=STMJ_219742_AUTH_SERV_PA&utm_medium=email&utm_acid=79502305&SIS_ID=&dgcid=STMJ_219742_AUTH_SERV_PA&CMX_ID=&utm_in=DM452632&utm_source=AC_" target="_blank">paper published in February</a>, Ozkan proposed swapping conventional jet fuel for e-kerosene, which is made by combining carbon dioxide with hydrogen.</p> <figure role="group" class="caption caption-drupal-media"><div class="media media--type-image media--view-mode-default" data-align="center"> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/2024-11/airplane-line.jpg" width="1024" height="653" alt="Four jets fly in a line toward the camera, approaching an airport" typeof="foaf:Image" /></div> </div> <figcaption>Two new approaches to carbon-neutral jet fuel from UC Riverside research could reduce emissions from global air travel. <em>Credit: Matt Cardy/Getty</em></figcaption></figure><p>Electricity from renewable sources can generate hydrogen from water through a process called electrolysis, and the carbon dioxide and hydrogen can then be made into e-kerosene. It’s chemically identical to standard jet fuel, <a href="https://news.ucr.edu/articles/2024/02/26/strategy-unveiled-achieve-carbon-neutral-air-travel" target="_blank">Ozkan notes</a>, meaning there’s no need to modify existing aircraft to put e-kerosene into circulation.</p> <p>The same month that Ozkan’s study came out, her colleague, UC Riverside Associate Research Professor Charles Cai, <a href="https://news.ucr.edu/articles/2024/02/07/inexpensive-carbon-neutral-biofuels-are-finally-possible" target="_blank">solved</a> one of the biggest challenges to making jet fuel from plants. The promise of affordable, carbon-neutral biofuels has been held back at the first step, breaking down the tough material called lignin that gives plants structure. Cai discovered a simple, renewable chemical that speeds up lignin digestion. His breakthrough, supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, makes biofuel manufacturing cheap and easy enough to compete with jet fuel made from petroleum.</p> <figure role="group" class="caption caption-drupal-media"><div class="media media--type-image media--view-mode-default" data-align="center"> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/2024-11/charles-cai.jpg" width="2400" height="1599" alt="Charles Cai smiles faintly at the camera with arms crossed over his chest, standing in a dark lab wearing a UC Riverside lab coat" typeof="foaf:Image" /></div> </div> <figcaption>UC Riverside Professor Charles Cai discovered a chemical that can speed up a critical step in biofuel production. The breakthrough could make plant-based jet fuel cost-competitive with petroleum.</figcaption></figure><h2>7. Transforming the land from carbon source to carbon sink</h2> <p>Plants continually pull carbon from the atmosphere and transform it into leaves and wood. As they decompose, they cycle carbon into the ground, where healthy soils can store it safely, making the land one of our most potent forces in the climate fight. And yet the ways we currently use land — to landscape our communities, grow food, raise livestock and harvest timber — <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/syr/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_SYR_SPM.pdf" target="_blank">currently account for over a fifth of the human-caused carbon emissions</a> worldwide each year.</p> <p>Take, for example, the bag of peat moss stacked on pallets outside your local hardware store. It’s a garden staple used to improve soil drainage, but most green thumbs don’t know that that peat might have taken millennia to get to their yards. It forms in bogs, where standing water prevents dead plants from fully breaking down. Carbon-rich plant material builds up in thick layers year after year. Peat mining operations interrupt this process, releasing thousands of years of stored carbon in a single go.</p> <figure role="group" class="caption caption-drupal-media"><div class="media media--type-image media--view-mode-default" data-align="center"> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/2024-11/peat.pistachio.jpg" width="1918" height="1041" alt="Split-screen image showing a close-up of pistachio shells on the left and an aerial image of a peat bog on the right" typeof="foaf:Image" /></div> </div> <figcaption>Central Valley farms produce a lot of pistachio shells, and most of them go to waste. A UC Davis professor finds that they could become a substitute for peat moss in gardens and nurseries, so carbon-rich peat could be left in the bogs where it forms (above). <em>Credit: UC Davis</em></figcaption></figure><p>Jackson Gross, a researcher at UC Davis, has hit on a replacement for peat that uses an abundant byproduct of California’s booming agricultural industry: pistachio shells. This year he found that a soil mixture he developed <a href="https://www.ucdavis.edu/climate/news/6-inspiring-climate-change-solutions#:~:text=A%20new%20mix%3A%20Pistachios%2C%20not%20peat" target="_blank">boosted production</a> of lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers, and now he’s studying the nutritional content of crops grown in the new mixture.</p> </div> </div> <div class="section-image"> <div class="field field--name-field-feature-image field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"><div class="media media--type-image media--view-mode-default"> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/2023-11/hydro-sites-map.jpg" width="740" height="758" alt="A map of California showing locations of ARCHES hydrogen infrastructure projects, with production sites marked by teal, offtake sites marked by orange, and a pipeline sketched in purple." typeof="foaf:Image" /> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">ARCHES</div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-image-caption field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>A UC-led consortium called ARCHES has proposed a slate of projects that balances clean hydrogen production, transportation and use. </p> </div> </div> <aside class="section-highlight bg-color__blue-pale" aria-labelledby="header-6346"> <h3 class="highlight-title field--name-field-highlight-title" id="header-6346">A literal breakthrough for California's climate-stressed salmon </h3> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-highlight-body field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Biologists in southern Oregon recently spotted a <a href="https://dfw.state.or.us/news/images/2024/Oct_16_2024_Fall-run_Chinook_Salmon_Klamath_River_Oregon_01_ODFW_photo.jpg" target="_blank">fat Chinook salmon</a> wiggling its way up an ankle-deep stream, 230 river miles from the Pacific Ocean. This was the first salmon known to have swum this far up the river for over a century, since the completion of a series of dams in northern California and southern Oregon blocked off the Klamath River and its tributaries.</p> <p>Alongside commercial fishing and climate change, the loss of hundreds of miles of streambed habitat has pummeled the Klamath River’s salmon populations. In a desperate bid to save the species from extinction, a coalition led by the Yurok, Hoopa, Karuk and Klamath Tribes pushed for decades to remove the dams. This year, it finally happened: crews wrapped up demolition work on the largest river restoration project in world history in early October, demolishing four dams on the Klamath and its tributaries in Northern California, just weeks before the chinook made its return.</p> <div class="media media--type-remote-video media--view-mode-default" data-align="center"> <div class="field field--name-field-media-oembed-video field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item"><iframe src="/media/oembed?url=https%3A//youtu.be/pBw_OYcfALs&max_width=1200&max_height=720&hash=hFwczOyFYwAHmMiESPerRsrRy1rTu4UmCU7VtoEMoNU" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="" width="1200" height="720" class="media-oembed-content" title="Will Dam Removal Save Salmon on the Klamath River?"></iframe> </div> </div> <p paraeid="{935c2701-5842-4c81-9303-91c6fd5d33af}{206}" paraid="1859223167"><a href="https://www.ucdavis.edu/climate/news/salmon-diaries-before-after-klamath-dam-removal">Find out how researchers at UC Davis are working closely with members of the Klamath’s state, federal and tribal communities</a> to study how the dams’ removal plays out for fish populations up and down the river.</p> </div> </aside> </div> </div> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--article-section paragraph--view-mode--default display--"> <div class="l-container article-section"> <div class="section-content"> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-paragraph-body field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><h2 paraeid="{935c2701-5842-4c81-9303-91c6fd5d33af}{231}" paraid="1962570745">8. Shedding light on deep-sea carbon sequestration</h2> <p paraeid="{935c2701-5842-4c81-9303-91c6fd5d33af}{231}" paraid="1962570745">If we’re going to stay on the more livable side of the two-degree warming threshold, we’re not only going to have to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions. “All the best models that we have say that we have to do some form of carbon dioxide removal in order to hit climate goals,” <a href="https://news.ucsb.edu/2024/021362/anoxic-marine-basins-are-among-best-candidates-deep-sea-carbon-sequestration" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">said</a> UC Santa Barbara geochemist Morgan Raven.</p> <p paraeid="{9d4c1cff-ff89-4d0f-925a-294bf83a86a3}{37}" paraid="757981837">Raven has been studying one way to remove carbon from the atmosphere: harvesting plants grown on the surface and stashing them at the bottom of the ocean, where they can neither decompose nor escape to the surface. In <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2023AV000950" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">research published this year</a>, Raven identified areas of the seafloor called anoxic marine basins as the best, or as she put it, the “least bad” option for deep-sea carbon sequestration. These are deep, isolated pockets of the ocean, cut off from currents that could deliver oxygen or carry carbon toward the surface.</p> <p paraeid="{9d4c1cff-ff89-4d0f-925a-294bf83a86a3}{84}" paraid="920418306">Of the three basins she studied, Raven found that the Black Sea in Eastern Europe holds the most promise for carbon sequestration. It’s isolated from the rest of the world’s oceans, and at a mile and a half deep and nearly 125,000 square miles in size, it’s big enough to hold enough carbon-rich biomass to make a difference for the climate.</p> <figure role="group" class="caption caption-drupal-media"><div class="media media--type-image media--view-mode-default" data-align="center"> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/2024-11/black-sea.jpg" width="2120" height="1414" alt="A labeled, low-detail map showing the Black Sea and bordering nations" typeof="foaf:Image" /></div> </div> <figcaption>UC Santa Barbara geochemist Morgan Raven evaluated three deep, remote pockets of the world's oceans for their potential to store carbon in submerged plant matter. A basin on the floor of the Black Sea emerged as a location that could "make a dent in the climate," Raven found. <em>Credit: PeterHermesFurian/Getty</em></figcaption></figure><h2 paraeid="{9d4c1cff-ff89-4d0f-925a-294bf83a86a3}{102}" paraid="1203581023">9. A new material that passively absorbs carbon dioxide</h2> <p paraeid="{9d4c1cff-ff89-4d0f-925a-294bf83a86a3}{112}" paraid="128986655">Chemists have long sought to mimic the molecular interactions between plants, water, air and sunlight that fix carbon in leaves and soil. But most of the methods we’ve invented to remove carbon from the atmosphere — a set of technologies known as direct air capture — are costly, consume lots of energy, only work at high levels of atmospheric carbon concentration like the mouths of smokestacks, and wear out quickly.</p> <p paraeid="{9d4c1cff-ff89-4d0f-925a-294bf83a86a3}{128}" paraid="2058547000">Last month a team at UC Berkeley announced <a href="https://news.berkeley.edu/2024/10/23/capturing-carbon-from-the-air-just-got-easier" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">a major direct air capture breakthrough</a>: a new substance that can passively filter carbon from the ambient air. Their creation is called a covalent organic framework. It’s a hexagonal arrangement of atoms studded with polyamine molecules that can efficiently snag passing carbon dioxide molecules at everyday concentrations.</p> <figure role="group" class="caption caption-drupal-media"><div class="media media--type-image media--view-mode-default" data-align="center"> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/2024-11/COFandCampanile-crop-1024x585.jpg" width="1024" height="585" alt="A hand holds a small vial of bright yellow powder up in front of UC Berkeley's belltower on a blue sky day" typeof="foaf:Image" /></div> </div> <figcaption>The powder in this vial is reusable and can passively absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, solving at least two of the biggest problems with current carbon capture technologies. <em>Credit: Zihui Zhou, UC Berkeley</em></figcaption></figure><p paraeid="{9d4c1cff-ff89-4d0f-925a-294bf83a86a3}{161}" paraid="837344734">“We took a powder of this material, put it in a tube, and we passed Berkeley air — just outdoor air — into the material to see how it would perform, and it was beautiful. It cleaned the air entirely of CO2. Everything,” said Omar Yaghi, professor of chemistry at UC Berkeley and senior author of a paper announcing the breakthrough. Once saturated, the material can get heated up to break the bonds holding carbon dioxide to polyamine, then can be sent right back into service.</p> </div> </div> <div class="section-image"> </div> <aside class="section-highlight bg-color__blue-light" aria-labelledby="header-6348"> <h3 class="highlight-title field--name-field-highlight-title" id="header-6348">UC at COP29</h3> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-highlight-body field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>The University of California is sending about two dozen of our faculty, students and staff to COP29 as part of our <a href="https://scripps.ucsd.edu/news/meet-uc-san-diego-delegates-attending-2024-un-climate-conference-azerbaijan">official observer delegation</a>, led by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.</p> <figure role="group" class="caption caption-drupal-media"><div class="media media--type-image media--view-mode-default" data-align="center"> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/2024-11/uc.cop28.jpeg" width="1280" height="960" alt="A dozen people in business casual attire pose in two rows in front of a photo backdrop branded "Ocean Pavilion." The back row holds up a yellow cylinder about 4' long above their heads. " typeof="foaf:Image" /></div> </div> <figcaption>Members of UC's delegation at COP28 in Dubai in 2023. The Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego is again cohosting the <a href="https://oceanpavilion-cop.org/">Ocean Pavilion</a> at COP29, an exhibit and gathering space that's highlighting the risks of climate change to the world's oceans, and the role that oceans can play in mitigating climate disasters. <em>Credit: UC San Diego</em></figcaption></figure><p>UC delegates will attend official negotiation sessions, deliver testimony, submit written comments and speak to the media, aiming to get the findings of their research in front of the people who need it to make informed decisions. New this year, delegates have <a href="https://scripps.ucsd.edu/uc-cop/social-cost-carbon">made donations to climate organizations</a> as a way to cover a portion of the estimated cost of damages that the carbon emitted by their trips to Azerbaijan will incur.</p> </div> </aside> </div> </div> <div class="paragraph paragraph--type--article-section paragraph--view-mode--default display--"> <div class="l-container article-section"> <div class="section-content"> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-paragraph-body field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><h2>10. UC campuses report on pathways to decarbonization</h2> <p>UC research is also informing climate policy much closer to home. With funding from the State of California, sustainability experts on every campus have convened students, faculty and staff in the past year to study the most viable pathways toward eliminating greenhouse gas emissions from campus operations. Campus leaders submitted those state-funded decarbonization studies to the UC Office of the President in October.</p> <p>“These studies are an important milestone in UC’s decarbonization process,” says UC Chief Sustainability Officer Matt St. Clair. “Last year at this time, we had a <a href="https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/university-california-adopts-new-stronger-climate-action-goals">new policy goal stating that we’d reduce our systemwide emissions by 90 percent</a> no later than 2045. Now, thanks to a year of effort and input from across our community, we know what we need to do to get there.”</p> </div> </div> <div class="section-image"> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </article> </div> <div class="views-element-container l-container block block-views block-views-blockrelated-articles-block-1" id="block-views-block-related-articles-block-1"> <h2>Keep reading</h2> <div><div class="view view-related-articles view-id-related_articles view-display-id-block_1 js-view-dom-id-c6af122f3f4f51e520eeef48cdcafe5a11c5365f1caccf870e313805ada1dd34"> <div class="view-empty"> <div class="view view-related-articles view-id-related_articles view-display-id-block_4 js-view-dom-id-b4a21c8b90ebdbd651c3eac1e8100929b71d4754f41854a56103780d413c02d2"> <div class="view-content"> <div class="views-row"><div class="views-field views-field-field-thumbnail"><div class="field-content views-field-field-image"> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/related_articles/public/mt.st_.helens.jpg?h=fed39f95&itok=35EMcIlV" width="1320" height="1320" alt="Volcanic smoke spills from the summit of a snow-covered Mt. St. Helens, seen from the far short of a lake on which the mountain is reflected" typeof="Image" class="image-style-related-articles" /> </div></div><div class="views-field views-field-nid"><span class="field-content"><div class="content--meta"><time datetime="2024-11-07T20:24:59Z" class="datetime">Thursday, November 7, 2024</time> </div> <h3><a href="/news/how-gophers-brought-mount-st-helens-back-life-one-day">How gophers brought Mount St. Helens back to life in one day</a> </h3> <p>Diggers kick-started decades of soil recovery after volcanic eruption, UC Riverside research shows. </p></span></div></div> <div class="views-row"><div class="views-field views-field-field-thumbnail"><div class="field-content views-field-field-image"> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/related_articles/public/alertca2.jpg?h=fed39f95&itok=FzH5sGoD" width="1320" height="1320" alt="Two people stand in front of a wall of screens showing a grid of footage of natural landscapes, a map of California and some smoke from a wildfire " typeof="Image" class="image-style-related-articles" /> </div></div><div class="views-field views-field-nid"><span class="field-content"><div class="content--meta"><time datetime="2024-07-17T16:57:56Z" class="datetime">Wednesday, July 17, 2024</time> </div> <h3><a href="/news/california-has-problems-ai-can-help-solve-them">California has problems. 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