Oct 22 2015
UC Riverside Chancellor Kim Wilcox and Professor Juliann Allison have prominent roles in the University of California Summit on Pathways to Carbon and Climate Neutrality: California and the World event being held Oct. 26 and 27 at UC San Diego.
Chancellor Kim Wilcox and Director of Sustainability John Cook at UC Riverside's solar farm. Photo by Carlos Puma
Allison, an associate professor of gender and sexuality studies and public policy and the associate director of the Center for Sustainable Suburban Development, will give a talk called “Policy and Regulatory Dimensions of Climate Action.” Wilcox will participate in a forum with chancellors from UC Davis and UC Merced that will be moderated by the chancellor of UC San Diego.
Among the prominent speakers are Gov. Jerry Brown, UC President Janet Napolitano, David Hochschild, commissioner on the California Energy Commission and Ralph Cicerone, president of the National Academy of Sciences.
The conference connects to the Carbon Neutrality Initiative announced in 2013, by University of California President Janet Napolitano. The initiative commits UC to emitting net zero greenhouse gases from its buildings and vehicle fleet by 2025, something no other major university system has done.
At the same time, the State of California has embarked on an ambitious new effort to limit climate change, setting the toughest carbon emissions goal adopted by any North American government.
The conference, chaired by UC San Diego Distinguished Professor Veerabhadran Ramanathan, will focus on scalable solutions for achieving significant greenhouse gas reductions for our state and the world.
Two UCR officials John Cook, the director of sustainability, and Matt Barth, the director of the Bourns College of Engineering Center for Environmental Research and Technology, were on the committee that planned the conference.
The conference also coincides with the University of California Cool Campus Challenge, which runs from Oct. 6 to Dec. 10 and invites all UC faculty, staff and students to participate in a competition aimed at reducing UC’s carbon footprint and creating a culture of sustainability across campuses.
Source: http://www.ucr.edu/