Head of Aspen Institute’s climate program optimistic about innovations to come
For The Aspen Times
Aspen Institute/Courtesy photo
Non-profit, governmental, and business leaders are descending on Aspen to work out the world’s most pressing challenges — often with audiences — through the massive Ideas Festival.
Among those, the very top existential one for most is climate change.
Greg Gershuny, executive director of the Aspen Institute Energy and Environment Program, has been at the forefront of tackling climate change for the institute for the past five years. His work focuses on finding innovative solutions and fostering cooperation among diverse stakeholders. He shared his insights on the eve of the 2023 Aspen Ideas Festival on the evolving landscape of climate action and the challenges faced in the transition to a sustainable future.
Prior to the Aspen Institute, he worked in the Obama administration as chief of staff for energy policy at the Department of Energy in 2013-16. Before that, he was director of energy and environment in the Office of Presidential Personnel and worked on science and STEM education policy in the Office of Science and Technology.
In his work at the Aspen Institute, he said, two events shifted the focus of the program to solely climate change and where it could make the most impact: One, the release of the United Nation’s IPCC Report in 2018 that the world needs to cut 45% of fossil fuels by 2030 and the rest by 2050 to stay under a 1.5 degree Celsius rise in temperature. Two, the global protests sparked by Greta Thunberg.
Gershuny quickly listed several ongoing institute projects:
- An initiative to decarbonize the shipping sector aims to encourage major companies to purchase space on zero-emissions ships.
- The institute is promoting solar panels and electric buses for school districts. The program published a timely report on streamlining the building of clean energy infrastructure after Congress passed billions of dollars in incentives in last year’s Inflation Reduction Act.
- A climate finance program called the “US-India Dialogue,” led by Bill Reilly, former EPA administrator, and Gina McCarthy, former White House climate adviser, to empower communities in India with tools to decarbonize and build resilient communities.
The role of his program is to promote key solutions among those who aren’t sure of what to do or to help those who are taking action to act faster, he said.
“We work with what we call the ‘middle 80%,'” Gershuny said, meaning the majority of people who accept that climate change is real and serious.
He emphasized striking the right balance between regulation and incentives, or sticks and carrots. For example, the EPA is reviving parts of former President Obama’s Clean Power Plan.
“If a coal plant is still emitting carbon from coal or natural gas by 2040, you’re going to need to shut down,” Gershuny said. It isn’t soon enough for many, and targets don’t really ratchet up until the 2030s. But the grants and tax credits Congress passed last year will lower costs and propel the shift.
He explained how utilities look out 20 to 30 years. Even as then-President Trump repealed environmental laws and withdrew from the Paris Climate Accords, the utilities knew the clean energy transition was coming.
He pointed out two big obstacles. The first is the adoption of new technology. Contractors have said they weren’t familiar enough with the newest heat pumps or have had longstanding relationships with existing suppliers.
But he said he sees signs of hope. The technician putting solar panels on Gershuny’s own roof now travels across the country earning triple what he made as an ironworker. Gershuny said he believes the new tax breaks on battery manufacturing will bring production back to the United States and create jobs.
The second problem is getting the money out the door. Local governments lack the capacity to apply for and spend funds. But here, too, the Aspen Institute Energy and Environment Program offers a model. It is part of the Roaring Fork Valley Wildfire Collaborative, a partnership of 18 organizations carrying out joint projects across four counties to reduce wildfire risk.
The U.S. Forest Service previously had about $3 billion for wildfire overall, and now has $46 billion. So this is the total amount of money they have overall for these treatments, not a dollar amount allocated to specific city.
He agreed it was time to end unabated fossil-fuel use, but that coal and gas would remain important fuels in niche areas. He said he is optimistic that the electric and transportation sectors and even steel and cement production can run on renewables.
He is a “big believer” in carbon capture, both technological and natural. Forests and soils obviously have always captured and stored gigatons of carbon over millennia, hence the imperative to protect and restore forests and farmland. A company in Iceland just proved it can take carbon out of the atmosphere but is so far only doing it on a minuscule scale.
Gershuny said one of his favorite programs was the Future Leaders Climate Summit. About 250 young people between the ages of 18 and 32 gathered in Miami in March and articulated their fears about climate change to Vice President Kamala Harris.
They are on their way to this year’s Ideas Fest. But as he attested to their worries, he stressed, “They’re so energized and motivated to work on this. … It is about giving them a track to work on.”
He said the transition out of fossil-based energy is happening slower than needed, but he highlighted what he called the remarkable speed of changes in the past few years.
He said he believes that by 2025 or 2030, the world will witness astonishing advancements, such as the widespread adoption of electric vehicles, renewable energy powering homes and businesses, and significant reductions in carbon emissions.
