Global Need for Building a Foundation for Clean Energy Education

Following the commitment to a sustainable future adopted in Paris at the COP21 meeting, a path to 2°C, or even 1.5°C or less of temperature rise, a great deal of work is needed in technology, systems, market development, and in the educational efforts need to build a strong a strong knowledge base for the impending low-carbon transition.  This new knowledge base should include theoretical and practical tools to build understanding of the potential to dramatically decarbonization of energy generation systems and of energy intensive economic sectors (e.g. agriculture, water management, buildings).  Central to these efforts are both the development of metrics for the return on investments in research (Nemet & Kammen, 2007), and new modes of outreach to impacted communities of students, to the public and private sector, and perhaps most critically, to impacted, disadvantaged, communities who are often at the ‘front lines’ of the climate crisis and the energy transition (Klenk, et al., 2015; rael.berkeley.edu/project/stakeholders- in-science).

Nicole L. Klenk, Katie Meehan, Sandra L. Pinel, Fabian Mendez, Pablo Torres Lima, and Daniel M. Kammen (2015) “Stakeholders in climate science: Beyond lip service?” Science, 350, 6262, 743 – 744.

Greg F. Nemet and Daniel M. Kammen (2007). "U.S. energy research and development: Declining investment, increasing need, and the feasibility of expansion." Energy Policy 35(1): 746-755.