Climate Solutions Symposium
August 22, 2020 (virtual)
Co-hosted by the Engineering, Science & Technology Council of Houston (ECH) and Climate Solutions for Texas
You can play several recordings from the symposium, including the morning session, the afternoon session and individual recordings of each presentation.
Panelists
Sylvia Dee, Climate Science Professor, Rice University, Houston TX
Climate Change: Simple, Serious, Solvable
pdf file
Gene Preston, PhD Electrical Engineer, Transmission Adequacy Consulting, Austin TX
Electrification of Transportation, Max Renewables while Maintaining Reliability, Max Renewables using Nuclear and Storage
pdf file
Pavel Tsvetkov, Nuclear Engineering Professor, Texas A&M University, College Station TX
Nuclear Energy: Zero Emissions and Safe
pdf file
Larry Kremer, PhD Physical Chemistry, Citizens Climate Lobby, The Woodlands TX
The Paramount Importance of a Price on Carbon
pdf file
John Hofmeister, MS Political Science, 2005-2008 Shell Oil Company President, Founder and CEO, Citizens for Affordable Energy, Houston TX
Pursuing Public Policy for Results
Symposium attendee questions answered
Panelists answered many questions posed by attendees in the Zoom webinar Q/A stream (more than 120). All questions, most of them answered, are provided here.
Back Story
Climate Solutions for Texas (CSTX) is a local initiative of AIChE's Climate Solutions Community (TCSC). AIChE launched The Climate Solutions Community on March 31, 2019 by press release at its annual Spring Meeting. TCSC was approved by the AIChE Board of Directors in October 2018 at AIChE’s Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh. On May 14, 2019, Dr. Tom Rehm, Chair of the TCSC Steering Committee, met with eight of his Houston-local colleagues to discuss formation of a local TCSC initiative. That local initiative, known as Climate Solutions for Texas, has grown to several dozen engineers, scientists and citizens concerned about global warming and its climate change effects.
On July 11, 2019, Dr. Rehm was invited to attend a Board meeting of the Engineering, Science & Technology Council of Houston. At that Board meeting, he described the objectives of The Climate Solutions Community which is to determine the technical and commercial viability of climate solutions, and recommend resolution of any challenges associated with commercialization. He provided information regarding electrical grid reliability in Texas relative to the level of renewables in the generation mix. He also described the benefits of advanced nuclear technology in resolving that reliability problem while also reducing emissions of greenhouse gas emissions. The ECH Board invited Dr. Rehm to work with the Board on an ECH symposium, co-hosted with Climate Solutions for Texas, on these issues.
The Climate Solutions Symposium was originally scheduled as an in-person event at the University of Houston Student Center Theater on April 4. Due to COVID-19, the in-person symposium was rescheduled to August 22, still planned at the Student Center Theater, with the expectation that COVID-19 would take a hiatus during the hot summer months. In late June, the decision was made to revert to a virtual format.
There was a silver lining to the symposium going virtual. It became open to anyone on the planet. This resulted in attendees from several countries, in Europe, Africa, South America and Asia.