Industrial Production

2:10PM - 3:30PM

Decarbonizing the Industrial Sector

The industrial sector accounts for 22% of direct US greenhouse gas emissions and includes some of the hardest industries to decarbonize, such as cement, steel, and petrochemicals. These raw materials are crucial inputs to building and transportation infrastructure, as well as capital and consumer goods. Because these industries are highly energy-intensive and often involve direct emissions from chemical reactions in the production process, they pose major challenges to economy-wide decarbonization.

This panel will give an overview of these challenges and focus on industry-agnostic, systems-level solutions to industrial decarbonization, using traditional, carbon-intensive industries as illustrative case studies, as well as exploring how emerging industries can limit the growth of their greenhouse gas footprints.

Rick Duke

The Brookings Institution

Dr. Rick Duke is a consultant and Brookings senior fellow. He served as Special Assistant to President Obama, helping to craft and implement the Climate Action Plan, including defining the 2025 emissions reduction target for the Paris Agreement, negotiating the Kigali Amendment on HFCs to the Montreal Protocol, and authoring the U.S. Mid-Century Strategy for deep decarbonization.

Anne Gaffney

Idaho National Lab, Center for Advanced Energy Studies

Dr. Anne M. Gaffney is the Chief Science Officer of the Energy, Environment, Science and Technology Directorate of the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and a Distinguished Laboratory Fellow. She has a joint appointment with the University of South Carolina where she is the Technical Director of the National Science Foundation Center for Rational Catalyst Synthesis.

Elsa Olivetti

MIT

Dr. Elsa Olivetti is the Atlantic Richfield Associate Professor of Energy Studies in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Her research focuses on improving the environmental and economic sustainability of materials using methods informed by materials economics, machine learning, and techno-economic analysis.

Abigail Regitsky

APS / AAAS STPF (Moderator)

Abigail Regitsky is a AAAS Congressional Science Fellow sponsored by the American Physical Society (APS). She works in the Office of Senator Tina Smith on energy and environment policy, where she has helped to craft legislation on a national clean energy standard.

Michele Bustamante

TMS/MRS / AAAS STPF (Reporter)

Michele Bustamante joined the AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellowship program as a Congressional fellow sponsored by the Minerals, Metals, & Materials Society and the Materials Research Society (TMS/MRS). Michele is spending her fellowship year in the office of Senator Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts.