Office buildings, high rises, and greenhouses are covered in windows. What if we used all that window space to capture solar energy and add to the grid’s renewable energy supply? Listen to University of Michigan engineering professor Steven Forrest explain how a change in the semiconducors used in solar panels could allow us to transform windows into power sources — without sacrificing light and transparency.
Climate Break Posts
When plants photosynthesize, they temporarily remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Could we use gene editing technology CRISPR to enhance photosynthesis and increase the amount of carbon dioxide they remove? UC Berkeley biology Professor and photosynthesis expert Kris Niyogi thinks so, and he says it could fight climate change and enhance food production at the same time. In this episode, Climate Break speaks to Professor Niyogi about his lab’s early-stage research into CRISPR, photosynthesis, and applications to climate change.
When emissions aren’t tracked, it’s harder for organizations to see how they can reduce their carbon footprints. Climate Break spoke with Dan Krekelberg, policy director of Climate Registry, about how centralizing emissions data can help organizations and agencies track and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
To decarbonize transportation, we’ll need to switch to electric cars. New electric vehicles are decreasing in price and increasing in range and accessibility, but remain out of reach for many. Could EV Retrofitting, a process that converts cars from internal combustion to electric in just a few hours, be what fills in the gap? Listen to Climate Break talk to Dr. Aly El Tayeb, founder of Egyptian retrofitting startup EV Shift, about its potential.
The California Air Resources Board’s Advanced Clean Cars II Rule requires all new light duty vehicles sold in California to be zero-emission by 2035. In the final episode of our series with CARB Executive Officer Dr. Steve Cliff, Climate Break talks to Dr. Cliff about CARB’s approach — and why he thinks the time is right for an ambitious government mandate.
Before California can reduce its vehicle miles traveled (VMT) — which measures total amount of driving occurring in the state — we need to start thinking differently about how we use space. Hear from Dr. Steve Cliff, Executive Officer of the California Air and Resource Board (CARB), on how he’s thinking about the role for land use and planning in decarbonizing transportation and reducing VMT.
In our second episode with California Air Resources Board’s Executive Officer, Dr. Steve Cliff, hear how Dr. Cliff is thinking about the challenges of building electrification and the role government can play in ensuring a just transition to energy efficient buildings.
In the fourth episode of our series highlighting the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) and its global partners’ leadership in transportation decarbonization, Climate Break spoke with CARB’s Executive Officer Dr. Steve Cliff about the importance of reducing emissions from trucks and heavy duty vehicles — and how Advanced Clean Trucks can help phase in a zero-emission trucking future.
As global climate summit COP27 meets this week, Climate Break has partnered with the California Air Resources Board (CARB) on a series of episode about CARB’s approach to climate policy and its work with international stakeholders advancing ambitious transportation decarbonisation goals. Today, hear from Cristiano Facanha, who leads the Drive to Zero program at CARB partner CalSTART, describe the transition strategy CARB and CalSTART developed for California’s commercial vehicles and how they’re bringing it to the world’s stage via the Drive to Zero initiative.
In the first episode of our series highlighting the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) work with international partners on sustainable mobility, we’re talking to Lennart Nout, an urban mobility specialist at the Dutch sustainability mobility firm Mobycon, about why inaccessible training keeps cities from designing biking and walking friendly cities — and how the Transportation Decarbonisation Alliance, a coalition including CARB and Mobycon — hopes to change that with the Call to Action they’ve brought to COP27.