Greenhouse Gas

�鶹ֱ��app symposium tackles carbon markets and climate finance

ullahnor — Wed, 27 Jun 2018 04:00:00 +0000

�鶹ֱ��app symposium tackles carbon markets and climate finance

ullahnor Wed, 06/27/2018 - 00:00

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�鶹ֱ��app's John Robinson (left) speaks to another conference organizer, lawyer Patricia Koval, a member of the School of the Environment's environmental finance advisory committee (photos by Noreen Ahmed-Ullah)

Noreen Ahmed-Ullah

Topic

City & Culture

Climate Change

Faculty of Arts & Science

Greenhouse Gas

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

President Meric Gertler

Rotman School of Management

School of the Environment

Looking for creative ways to fund efforts to reduce its carbon footprint, the University of Toronto brought together the financial community, university leaders, local government officials and climate change advocates for an all-day forum on carbon markets and sustainable finance.

As organizations and governments across North America try to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), �鶹ֱ��app hopes that driving the conversation on funding climate change initiatives could have implications beyond the university.

President Meric Gertler told the gathering that the discussion was very much in keeping with �鶹ֱ��app’s city-building efforts and its role as “an agent of change in the community.”

“The challenge of climate change is immense,” said President Gertler. “If we are to have any hope of achieving the emissions reductions necessary to avoid the worst consequences, we need to work together to explore, and then implement, the best means to achieve our climate targets.

“By offering the University of Toronto as a case study of innovative approaches to carbon finance, we hope this conference will generate insights that will help us to meet our targets. At the same time, these insights may well be relevant to other organizations and jurisdictions also facing the challenge of financing substantial reductions in GHG emissions.”

As part of Ontario’s program to reduce greenhouse gases, �鶹ֱ��app has set a goal to reduce emissions by 37 per cent from 1990 levels by 2030.

To meet the target, �鶹ֱ��app has embarked on retrofitting old buildings -- many of which qualify as heritage buildings – constructing new ones with fully sustainable features, and looking at acquiring carbon offsets. Earlier this year, �鶹ֱ��app received $26.7 million in new provincial innovation funding to launch several “green” projects.

President Gertler has also established a presidential advisory committee on the environment, climate change and sustainability. The committee has released recommendations on engaging students, faculty, staff and the external community, including initiatives to treat �鶹ֱ��app’s campuses as a living lab so that all operational activities like new buildings, retrofits, landscaping and purchasing are evaluated for performance on sustainability metrics.

�鶹ֱ��app has also joined two new university alliances – one led by the University of California’s 10 campuses to set GHG targets and trigger public engagement on the issue – and another led by the University of Oxford to explore sustainable finance and green investment.

With last week’s announcement that the province will be scrapping its cap-and-trade program, the university will likely need to explore alternative financing options, especially in the private sector, to fund many of the initiatives.

“It will be very important to consider how to leverage private capital,” said Tiff Macklem, dean of the Rotman School of Management, who spoke at the beginning of the forum. “It may force us to be more creative.”

Tiff Macklem, dean of the Rotman School of Management, talks about his role on the federal expert panel on sustainable finance

Other speakers included Jim Baxter, director of the environment and energy division at the City of Toronto, who talked about the city’s various green efforts and finance initiatives, including its partnership with Enwave Energy Corp. to explore low-carbon energy networks; Robert Keen, who heads Forests Ontario and talked about acquiring carbon offsets; Tim Stoate, who oversees the Atmospheric Fund’s impact investing, and designs and tests new financing options for low-carbon projects; and Shaaj Vijay of RBC Capital Markets, who discussed the use of green bonds.

Macklem, who was recently appointed by the federal government to chair an expert panel on sustainable finance, spoke about the opportunities in Canada and at �鶹ֱ��app to help develop and test ways for the market to adapt to climate change risks, fund the transition to a low carbon economy, and “provide leadership to the world.”

“If Canada comes to the table with a financial structure, that will get some attention because we have a reputation for financial stability,” he said.

John Robinson, �鶹ֱ��app’s presidential adviser on the environment, climate change and sustainability, who was one of the co-organizers of the conference, said he hopes that joining the Oxford University network will lead to a greater focus on sustainable finance at the university.

“There’s a lot of finance strength at Rotman, but there hasn’t been until now a focus on sustainable finance,” said Robinson, who is a professor at �鶹ֱ��app’s Munk School of Global Affairs and the School of the Environment in the Faculty of Arts & Science. “We’re hoping all of these activities will contribute to building academic capacity on sustainability across the university.”

The forum came out of �鶹ֱ��app’s alliance with 14 other leading research universities in North America that make up the University Climate Change Coalition, or UC3. One of the requirements for �鶹ֱ��app to join UC3 was a pledge to reduce its carbon footprint and to develop programming to engage the Toronto region on sustainability issues.

The alliance formed after U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris Agreement on climate change. At the time, the University of California Systems’ President Janet Napolitano, the former U.S. Secretary of �鶹ֱ��appland Security under then President Barack Obama, decided to bring together research-intensive universities with local governments and business leaders to continue with strong carbon reduction goals.

Professor John Robinson leads a discussion on creative sustainable financing, with speakers including Tim Stoate, vice-president of impact investing at The Atmospheric Fund, and Rob Keen, CEO of Forests Ontario

“The only thing this announcement did was galvanize everybody in the country who is working on climate action,” said Matthew St. Clair, who is leading sustainability efforts across the 10-campus University of California system.

“You’re not alone,” he told participants. “This was a huge motivator for climate actors in the United States.”

Scott Mabury, �鶹ֱ��app’s vice-president of university operations, said he heard a lot of good ideas at the forum, and the university will now look at, “How much can we do, what can we prioritize?”

“We now need to plan very formally how we’re going to hit the 2030 target,” he said.

Physics Professor Kimberly Strong, director of �鶹ֱ��app’s School of the Environment, helped co-organize the conference. She said one of the takeaways was that other countries like China have significantly ambitious cap and trade programs, and Ontario now runs the risk of being left behind.

“Carbon dioxide emissions are very clearly increasing. We can see that in our ground-based measurements,” she said. “We can see it in new datasets coming out of satellite observations. We are learning more and more about the carbon cycle, and how emissions into the atmosphere interact with biosphere and oceans, and we need to be reducing those emissions.

“As a scientist, I am interested in understanding what is going on in the atmosphere, but we also need to make a change in what we’re doing. While we make the case around cultural and behaviour changes, we also need to make an economic case for reining in greenhouse gas emissions. We should be developing green technology. We should be developing financial instruments. If we don’t do that, other countries will be moving ahead, and at some point, we’re going to be left scrambling to catch up.”

Katie Sullivan, managing director at the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA), and Xiaolu Zhao, the China Climate Initiative program manager with the Environmental Defense Fund, talk about carbon markets around the world including in China and Ontario

Green infrastructure: New tool by �鶹ֱ��app researchers to help construction industry reduce carbon footprint

rasbachn — Mon, 11 Dec 2017 16:10:43 +0000

Green infrastructure: New tool by �鶹ֱ��app researchers to help construction industry reduce carbon footprint

rasbachn Mon, 12/11/2017 - 11:10

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From left, Brenda McCabe, Daman Panesar, Shoshanna Saxe, Heather MacLean and Daniel Posen of the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering (photo by Tyler Irving)

Tyler Irving

Topic

City & Culture

Environment

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Greenhouse Gas

Infrastructure

A team of researchers from the University of Toronto is partnering with the construction industry to help reduce the carbon footprint of buildings, bridges, public transit and other major infrastructure projects.

“What we’re building is a decision-support tool that can be used in the early stages of design and planning,” says Heather MacLean, a professor in the department of civil engineering who is one of five Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering professors involved in the project. “Ultimately, the goal is to produce infrastructure with much lower greenhouse gas impact.”

While green building certification programs have existed for decades, MacLean and her collaborators – including Brenda McCabe and Daman Panesar, professors of civil engineering, and Daniel Posen and Shoshanna Saxe, assistant professors of civil engineering – point out that these are typically considered only toward the end of the design process, when most major decisions have already been made.

“The decisions that have the most impact are the ones that are made early in the process,” says Saxe, who specializes in analysis of transit infrastructure. “These include how big it’s going to be, or what materials it will be made of. Once those are set, it really puts limits on how low the overall emissions can get.”

Nearly a year ago, the team was approached by EllisDon, a major construction and building services company headquartered in Mississauga. As part of its carbon impact initiative, the company and its partners, including BASF and WSP, are collaborating on projects that aim to elevate efficiency and sustainability in the built environment.

In their early talks, the researchers and industry partners quickly identified science-based decision support in the early stages of project planning as a key strategy for emissions reduction. They plan to analyze data from previously constructed projects and publicly available databases to generate predictive digital tools.

“Large-scale infrastructure projects are complex, consisting of many different construction activities, along with associated inputs of material and energy,” says MacLean. “We don’t yet have good data about the on-site and supply-chain emissions associated with these inputs, especially those specific to the Ontario context. If we can cut down on that uncertainty, it will greatly help inform these types of decisions.”

Read CBC report on massive green construction projects, featuring �鶹ֱ��app Scarborough residence

Ontario's Ministry of Research, Innovation and Science announced last week that the project was among those that received funding through the TargetGHG program, administered by Ontario Centres of Excellence, which supports industry-academic collaborations that will help the province meet more aggressive future GHG targets.

“Supporting the efforts of large industries in their quest to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions is an important part of our government’s Climate Change Action Plan,” says Reza Moridi, minister of research, innovation and science. “With the help of our province’s innovative clean-tech companies, the TargetGHG program will help build a prosperous, low carbon economy and create a cleaner, more sustainable future for Ontario.”

In total, the project has attracted more than $2 million in funding from a variety of sources, including the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) as well as financial and in-kind contributions from the industrial partners.

“Taking steps to reduce the impacts of greenhouse gases and air pollution on our climate and environment is a key priority in Canada,” says Marc Fortin, vice-president, research partnerships at the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. “NSERC is proud to partner with Ontario Centres of Excellence to connect Canada’s top researchers and companies to develop innovative clean technologies that will advance environmental sustainability in Canada and improve the health and quality of life of Canadians.”

“This project is a wonderful example of how our researchers leverage strong collaborations with industry to develop next-generation solutions to society’s most pressing challenges, including climate change,” said Ramin Farnood, vice-dean, research at �鶹ֱ��app's Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. “This tool has great potential to enhance the sustainability of major infrastructure not just here in Ontario, but around the world.”

A second �鶹ֱ��app Engineering project, focused on installation and testing of fast-charging stations for electric vehicles, also received funding through the TargetGHG program. Led by Professor Reza Iravani, it will be carried out in collaboration with energy storage company eCAMION.

MacLean and her team are already looking to recruit the graduate students and postdoctoral fellows who will collect and analyze the data, and continue to work closely with their industrial partners as they move forward.

“It’s exciting to be working with partners that are eager to roll out solutions,” says Posen. “We have had great meetings, and we have a strong sense they are looking to turn this research into practical results.”

Canada's climate change research at risk: �鶹ֱ��app physicist

ullahnor — Fri, 14 Jul 2017 17:17:22 +0000

Canada's climate change research at risk: �鶹ֱ��app physicist

ullahnor Fri, 07/14/2017 - 13:17

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Researchers at �鶹ֱ��app and Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society say funding cuts mean less data about changes to Arctic oceans, clouds and glaciers (photo by Education Images/UIG via Getty)

Topic

Breaking Research

Climate Change

Greenhouse Gas

A crisis is looming for Canadian climate research, writes �鶹ֱ��app Physics Professor Paul J. Kushner and his colleagues from the National Executive of the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society (CMOS) in an op-ed for The Globe and Mail.

Kushner, principal investigator of the Canadian Sea Ice and Snow Evolution Network (CanSISE) and vice-president of CMOS, Wayne Richardson, president of CMOS, and Martin Taillefer, president of Maritime Way Scientific and past president of CMOS, argue that funding cuts will have severe repercussions for climate change research conducted by the Government of Canada’s Climate Change and Atmospheric Research (CCAR) program.

“While our scientific understanding is advancing, our climate is still changing and we must figure out the causes and impacts of those changes – this is imperative,” they contend. “Canada needs continued investment in climate research to stay up-to-date with these advances, to lead the market with new technologies, new observations, framework commitments that require accounting for greenhouse gas emissions and sudden environmental changes that will impact us.”

The $7-million per year in funding has helped train over 350 undergraduate students, graduate students and other research staff and supported field research across Canada.

Researchers are studying everything from the role of greenhouse gases and aerosol particles in recent Arctic sea ice loss to the Fort McMurray wildfires. Other research areas in an era of rapid global warming include: the state and future of the Arctic’s ocean, clouds, air quality and permafrost; the storing of carbon dioxide in the Labrador Sea; and changes to cold climate soils and snow, and their impact on water resources.

But the 2017 federal budget did not include a renewal of the CCAR program.

“As a result, these science networks will have to terminate personnel and science positions, cancel training opportunities, shut down field programs and limit Canada’s participation in international programs that are looking at global aspects of climate change,” the researchers say.

Read the op-ed

�鶹ֱ��app brings city together for Toronto Sustainability Summit

Romi Levine — Thu, 13 Apr 2017 20:10:09 +0000

�鶹ֱ��app brings city together for Toronto Sustainability Summit

Romi Levine Thu, 04/13/2017 - 16:10

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Panelists at the summit included (from left to right) city of Toronto's chief planner Jennifer Keesmaat, �鶹ֱ��app's John Robinson and Sara Hughes, Waterfront Toronto's William Fleissig and Ron Swail from university operations (all photos by Johnny Guatto)

Romi Levine

Author legacy

Romi Levine

Topic

Subheadline

“The university is a critical partner”

As Toronto continues to grow, so does its carbon footprint.

Enter the Toronto Sustainability Summit.

As part of �鶹ֱ��app's commitment to taking action on climate change, the university brought together �鶹ֱ��app’s green experts, government leaders and the city’s sustainability champions today for a summit that explored opportunities for collaboration and partnership, and highlighted the work �鶹ֱ��app is already leading.

Guests included Glen Murray, Ontario minister of environment and climate change, Andrew Bowerbank, global director of sustainable building services at construction company EllisDon, Jennifer Keesmaat, the city of Toronto’s chief planner, and John Robinson, the university’s first-ever presidential adviser on the environment, climate change and sustainability. They were joined by leaders from some of the successful sustainability-focused startups that have come out of �鶹ֱ��app, such as green technology company Nanoleaf.

“The University of Toronto is a global leader in research and innovation in fields related to climate change and sustainability, energy, environment, clean tech, biofuels and environmental policy, and law, just to name a few fields,” �鶹ֱ��app President Meric Gertler told the full house at the MaRS Discovery District.

Keesmaat, who moderated a panel called Green City, Green Campus, agreed.

“When we bring policies forward to City Council, we need to make an argument. We need data and evidence. We need analytics to ensure we are defining problems in a way that is based on a sound logic,” said Keesmaat. “The university is a critical partner in these kinds of projects.”

The city of Toronto's Chief Planner Jennifer Keesmaat moderated a panel at �鶹ֱ��app's Sustainability Summit, titled Green City, Green Campus

The university is contributing to a number of sustainability projects around the city, including Waterfront Toronto’s large-scale development.

President Gertler’s appointment to the board of Waterfront Toronto brings the expertise of “one of the world's leading scholars around this idea of urban clusters and creating economic opportunity” to the waterfront, as well as the university’s wealth of resources, said Waterfront Toronto CEO William Fleissig.

“It's just wonderful to have that kind of a partnership of opportunity and to have not only the mental acuity but also the intention,” he said.

Robinson is among faculty members who are working with the city on a large-scale engagement strategy, with plans to reach out to communities across the city on climate change issues.

“The world is changing, and the university has a real responsibility and opportunity to deeply engage with that process of societal transformation,” said Robinson. “We're not talking about incremental change but transformative change, and the university can play a crucial role because we have characteristics unique to us.”

The biggest contribution �鶹ֱ��app can make is its students, he said.

“They are the most engaged, the most interested. They're already often the most creative. We have an opportunity to take our students and attach them to everything we do across the campus,” said Robinson.

Sustainability can be applied to all aspects of the university, he said.

“Sustainability is not a subject area we want to build at �鶹ֱ��app. Sustainability is a stance – it's a way of being in the world,” Robinson said. “It permeates every single faculty, every single department. There is no component to the academic and operational side of the university that does not relate to sustainability.”

Through its own on-campus green building initiatives, �鶹ֱ��app has seen the real, tangible impacts of change, said Ron Swail, �鶹ֱ��app’s chief operations officer of property services and sustainability.

“Over the last 10 years, we've been able to reduce the university's environmental footprint by over 50,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas and save the university approximately $40 million in utilities,” Swail said.

And �鶹ֱ��app is taking its commitment to sustainability to the neighbourhoods surrounding the downtown Toronto campus through ambitious initiatives like the laneway housing project, Swail said.

�鶹ֱ��app President Meric Gertler told summit participants that �鶹ֱ��app is a global leader in research and innovation in fields related to sustainability

Turning greenhouse gases into something useful at �鶹ֱ��app

lanthierj — Tue, 11 Apr 2017 17:48:23 +0000

Turning greenhouse gases into something useful at �鶹ֱ��app

lanthierj Tue, 04/11/2017 - 13:48

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Alexander Ip and his �鶹ֱ��app research team, led by Professor Ted Sargent, will receive nearly $1 million from the Ontario government for the semi-final round of the Carbon XPRIZE competition (photo by Kevin Soobrian)

Chris Sorensen

Author legacy

Chris Sorensen

Topic

Subheadline

Ontario supports �鶹ֱ��app researchers competing for Carbon XPRIZE

University of Toronto researchers are set to receive nearly $1 million from the Ontario government as they compete in the semi-final round of a $20 million global contest that looks for ways to turn harmful greenhouse gases into useful products like fuels and fertilizers.

The province recently said the team of over 15 multidisciplinary researchers, known as Carbon Electrocatalytic Recycling Toronto or CERT, will receive $833,000 to support the development and demonstration of its concept during the NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE competition, which boasts $20 million worth of prizes.

The �鶹ֱ��app team’s technology transforms carbon dioxide (CO₂) into formic acid, a colourless liquid commonly used to tan leather or as a preservative for livestock feed.

“We’re excited to see the province supporting �鶹ֱ��app’s Carbon Electrocatalytic Recycling Toronto as it competes in the prestigious XPRIZE competition,” said Vivek Goel, �鶹ֱ��app’s vice-president of research and innovation. “This funding will help CERT in this clean-tech research that will have meaningful impact on environmental sustainability.”

What is public transit's effect on the environment? A �鶹ֱ��app researcher crunches the numbers

ullahnor — Wed, 01 Mar 2017 15:30:56 +0000

What is public transit's effect on the environment? A �鶹ֱ��app researcher crunches the numbers

ullahnor Wed, 03/01/2017 - 10:30

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Professor Shoshanna Saxe analyses the environmental and social impact of large public transit infrastructure projects, equipping policymakers with data as they decide which investments to make (photo by Tyler Irving)

Tyler Irving

Author legacy

Tyler Irving

Topic

Public Transportation

Greenhouse Gas

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Sustainable Cities

Smart Cities

Subheadline

The latest extension of the London Underground “turned out to be a bit of a mixed bag,” and Toronto's Sheppard subway line initially struggled to provide greenhouse gas savings with low ridership

The benefits of building public transit include reducing greenhouse gas emissions, relieving traffic congestion and expanding a growing city. Yet each transit project is unique, and often the immediate environmental benefits can be a mixed bag.

Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering Shoshanna Saxe crunches the numbers on existing infrastructure to provide key decision-makers with a reality check on the environmental and social impacts of today’s transit investments.

“Engineers usually aren’t involved in policymaking, and policymakers usually aren’t involved in engineering,” says Saxe. “I’m trying to bridge that gap.”

Read about her work at the Toronto Star

Saxe joined �鶹ֱ��app's Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering in August 2016.

Before completing her PhD at the University of Cambridge, she spent three years at a major consulting engineering firm in Toronto, working on projects such as the Eglinton Crosstown transit line and the Toronto-York Spadina subway extension.

“I love design – it’s amazing,” she says. “However, when you’re building things that people are going to use, you have to stay well within the limits of what you know for sure. I was curious about questions that we didn’t already know the answers to.”

During her PhD, Saxe conducted a detailed analysis of the London Underground’s extension of the Jubilee Line, which was completed in 1999. She gathered data on the greenhouse gases produced during construction and operation of the line, then used transit and land-use surveys to estimate the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions attributable to people using the line and living near it. By combining the two, she could calculate the net environmental benefit of that transit project.

“It turned out to be a bit of a mixed bag,” she says. “If you make some optimistic assumptions, you could say that it broke even in terms of greenhouse gas emissions around 2012 or 2013. If you are more pessimistic, you’re looking at a greenhouse gas payback of twice as long.”

Saxe says that the Jubilee Line extension sees approximately 175 million trips per year. On projects where ridership is low, the environmental payback period can be much longer.

Saxe also studied the Sheppard subway line in Toronto and found it initially struggled to provide greenhouse gas savings with a much lower ridership. Over time, the Sheppard Subway Line has benefited from the decreasing emissions associated with electricity in Ontario. The results of the Sheppard Subway study were recently published in the journal Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment.

“If you’re at Don Mills station, and you want to go north, east, or even southeast, the network doesn’t serve you yet,” she says. “We still see people from that area driving 70 per cent of the time so unfortunately there’s just a lot less opportunity for savings.”

Saxe says that her dream project would be to follow a major piece of infrastructure such as a new transit line from conception through construction and use for 20 or 30 years.

“I want to answer questions like: why did we originally build it, how did we originally build it, how did it perform over its lifetime, how did we maintain it and what did it need?” she says. “If we know how our present decision-making affects things decades from now, we can make better decisions.”

Saving the planet with carbon dioxide – �鶹ֱ��app hosts gathering of experts on climate change

lanthierj — Fri, 07 Oct 2016 19:40:47 +0000

Saving the planet with carbon dioxide – �鶹ֱ��app hosts gathering of experts on climate change

lanthierj Fri, 10/07/2016 - 15:40

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(photo by Isengardt via flickr)

Arthur Kaptainis

Author legacy

Arthur Kaptainis

Topic

Our Community

Faculty of Forestry

Faculty of Arts & Science

Its official title is Transformative Research to Combat Climate Change but Professor Geoffrey Ozin dubs it “the Woodstock of carbon dioxide”.

On October 12, experts from around the world will gather at the University of Toronto for a cross-disciplinary look at one of the biggest challenges humanity faces. And they’re finding hope where many of us might not think to look: greenhouse gases.

“I think you can call this the Woodstock of carbon dioxide in Ontario,” says Ozin.

A University Professor in the department of chemistry, Ozin will give a presentation entitled CO2 Chemistry and Engineering Solutions to Climate Change.

Learn more about the event

Possibly the most widely reviled compound on the planet thanks to its effect on the environment, carbon dioxide is seen by most people as nothing more than a byproduct of fossil fuel consumption. But Ozin is one of a number of scientists who look at the most famous of greenhouse gases as a potential source of energy.

“Just as you recycle plastic, glass and paper, why not recycle carbon dioxide?” Ozin asks.

It won't happen overnight, Ozin says. At the core of the problem is the chemical stability of carbon dioxide. Energy must be applied to the molecule, preferably from renewable sources, to transform it into a fuel or product (manufacturing being a secondary aim of carbon-dioxide researchers).

It’s a process that could be compared to photosynthesis, the natural process by which plants generate energy from carbon dioxide and water. And the parallel has made biochemists and even forestry experts part of the CO2 research endeavour.

“There are many ways to tackle the climate change challenge, or, I would say, fight the climate change war,” says Professor Mohini Sain, dean of the Faculty of Forestry, which is the host of the conference.

“The Paris Agreement took two pathways: mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions and reduction of fossil-fuel consumption. What we are saying at the University of Toronto is that there are other ways of doing this.

“We are bringing in a third paradigm: Use CO2 as a resource, just as we have used petroleum as a resource.”

Ontario Minister of the Environment and Climate Control Glenn Murray is set to open the event at �鶹ֱ��app's Faculty Club. Speakers include a nanochemistry authority from Penn State University; a representative of the National Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada (NSERC); and several alternative-energy company executives, as well as the director of alternative fuel platform management for Volvo trucks. Peter Styring, professor of chemical engineering and chemistry at the University of Sheffield and director of the UK Centre for Carbon Dioxide Utilization will deliver the plenary speech.

Ozin says it makes sense for Ford Canada to sponsor a conference dedicated to finding alternatives to fossil fuels.

“Can you imagine the pressure that the automobile industry is under?” he asks. “They put out 35 per cent of the emissions in the city. There are strict controls coming along. They have to figure them out. As do all the CO2 industries.”

The CO2 economy is a complex subject in its own right and Ozin does not hesitate to use the modifier “utopian” to describe his long-term thinking. But the basic goal is to turn CO2 into to a commodity with value.

“The beauty is this,” he says. “Fossil fuel will run out. Carbon dioxide will be recycled for the rest of time.”

Sain foresees a cohort of young scientists occupying this research area, both in universities and in corporate research departments. He expects some will migrate from crowded fields where research is taking a traditional approach to the CO2 dilemma.

“We want to make it happen,” he says. “Not only from the research point of view, but making a transition to demonstrating its viability.”

(Visit flickr to see the original of the photo used above)

Greenhouse Gas

�鶹ֱ��app symposium tackles carbon markets and climate finance

Green infrastructure: New tool by �鶹ֱ��app researchers to help construction industry reduce carbon footprint

Read CBC report on massive green construction projects, featuring �鶹ֱ��app Scarborough residence

Canada's climate change research at risk: �鶹ֱ��app physicist

Read the op-ed

�鶹ֱ��app brings city together for Toronto Sustainability Summit

Turning greenhouse gases into something useful at �鶹ֱ��app

Read more about the team

What is public transit's effect on the environment? A �鶹ֱ��app researcher crunches the numbers

Read about her work at the Toronto Star

Saving the planet with carbon dioxide – �鶹ֱ��app hosts gathering of experts on climate change

Learn more about the event