February Meeting (Zoom) 2/10/21

Decarbonizing California's Transportation Sector

The California Environmental Protection Agency contracted with UCSB for a study to identify strategies to decrease demand and supply of fossil fuels while managing the decline of fossil fuel use in a way that is economically responsible and sustainable. The study includes evaluation of pathways to achieve a carbon-neutral economy by 2045 and manage the decline of in-state production as the state's fossil fuel demand decreases. Our speaker will review the current state of California's transportation fossil fuel supply sector based on the publicly-released Synthesis Report.

Dr. David Lea is a Professor in UCSB's Department of Earth Science, Affiliate Faculty in UCSB's Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, and a member of UCSB's Marine Science Institute. He has been a faculty member at UCSB since 1989. He received his BS in Geology from Haverford College and his Ph.D. in Oceanography from the MIT - Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program. His research interests include global climate change (past, present, and future), marine geochemistry/carbon cycle, and pathways to carbon neutrality. He has published over 100 scholarly papers on these topics, including 18 in Science and Nature. Dr. Lea has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Chicago and University of Cambridge. His awards include the UCSB Academic Senate Distinguished Teaching Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship. In 2010-2011, Dr. Lea served as science advisor in the U.S. Department of State to President Obama's Special Envoy on Climate Change and chief U.S. negotiator of the Paris Agreement. In 2018, UC President Janet Napolitano appointed Dr. Lea to membership in the UC Global Climate Leadership Council (GCLC), which advises the UC system on its Carbon Neutrality Initiative. In September 2018, UCSB Chancellor Henry Yang appointed Dr. Lea to be faculty co-Chair of the Chancellor's Sustainability Committee. Dr. Lea is currently serving as a UCSB Principal Investigator on a Carbon Neutrality Study for CalEPA: Managing the Decline in Transportation Fossil Fuel Supply