In a virtual launch on December 16, UC Santa Barbara’s 2035 Initiative unveiled a detailed roadmap for a seemingly obvious target of climate action: cleaning up the industrial sector.
Titled The Clean Heat Climate Opportunity, the new report maps out a pathway for electrifying low- and medium-temperature industrial heat — the kind used in making everything from paper and plastics to beer and frozen pizza. And the findings are clear: This shift could slash U.S. climate pollution by as much as 26 percent in key sectors while unlocking nearly half a trillion dollars in public health benefits by 2050.
“To hit our climate goals, it’s not just cars and buildings that need to go electric — it’s also big factories,” said Leah C. Stokes, one of the report’s principal investigators and an Associate Professor at UCSB. “Most of what we eat, drink, and use every day gets made with heat from burning fossil fuels. Fortunately, we can swap out dirty technologies with clean alternatives like electric heat pumps that can cut pollution, improve air quality, and modernize U.S. manufacturing.”…