EXPERTS ADVISORY

World leaders have gathered in Paris to try to negotiate an agreement to reduce emissions of the greenhouse gases warming the planet. The University of Michigan has several faculty experts who can discuss the significance of the Paris climate conference and what’s at stake.

Richard Rood, professor of climate and space sciences and engineering, teaches a course on the climate change problem solving that covers the interface of interface of climate change with policy, business, public health and communication. He is posting his thoughts on COP21 at his Wunderground blog.

“The more or less official mantra of why this COP is different is that technology and finance are lining up to make fossil-fuel alternatives economically viable as global-scale energy sources,” Rood recently wrote on his blog. “I think that this is true, but more importantly, I think that people and businesses are starting to believe this. This increased acceptance by people is motivated in part by the growing realization that the climate is, indeed, changing.”

Contact: 301-526-8572 (cell phone), rbrood@umich.edu

Rosina Bierbaum, professor of natural resources and environment and environmental health sciences, is an expert on environmental policy, sustainable development and climate change adaptation.

The former SNRE dean serves on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and chairs the Science and Technical Advisory Panel of the Global Environment Facility. She was a lead convening author of the climate adaptation chapter in the latest U.S. National Climate Assessment and a review editor on a 2014 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report about climate change impacts, adaptation and vulnerability.

“The Paris climate negotiations must result in an ambitious and durable international agreement in order to avoid catastrophic climate change,” she said. “The composite reductions promised by countries are an important first step in stemming greenhouse gas emissions, but sustained and accelerated action will be needed in the coming decades if the world hopes to limit temperature increases to tolerable levels.”

Contact: 734-763-8675, rbierbau@umich.edu

Arun Agrawal, professor of natural resources and environment, was a lead author of the livelihoods and poverty chapter in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 2014 report on climate change impacts, adaptation and vulnerability.

His expertise lies in the political economics of development, environmental governance, resource use and management, climate adaptation and institutional analysis. He is editor-in-chief of World Development, a multidisciplinary journal of development studies and coordinator of the International Forest Resources and Institutions Network.

“A comprehensive climate-change agreement in Paris is only a step in the direction of what we need to do, but it is an urgent, critical and necessary step for the survival of our civilization,” Agrawal said. “The failure of the international community to reach an agreement in Paris would be an institutional debacle—because of what that says about the inability of humans to respond to even to urgent and unequivocal challenges.”

Contact: 734-647-5948, arunagra@umich.edu

Paul Edwards, professor of information and history, is attending the first half of the conference. He is author of the book “A Vast Machine: Computer Models, Climate Data and the Politics of Global Warming.” He can discuss how society might shift away from carbon-based energy, as well as the structure of the conference and its significance.

“We have $10 trillion in fossil fuel infrastructure that is deeply rooted, but we have to find another way to power our stuff,” he said. “The stakes are enormous. They’ve always been enormous but as time goes on, they get bigger and bigger.”

Read his article in the Conversation about how fast society can transition to a low-carbon energy system at myumi.ch/LrnD2.

Contact: 734-764-2617, pne@umich.edu

Ben van der Pluijm, the Bruce R. Clark Professor of Geology and former director of the U-M Global Change Program, can discuss near-term societal resilience—related to weather, coastal lands and energy, for example—of climate change.

“At COP21, the representatives should focus on achievable goals and shared responsibility instead of well-intentioned but unenforceable rhetoric,” he said. “The rich, developed nations’ focus on long-term impacts—drought, health and agriculture, for example—overshadows short-term challenges faced by today’s developing nations. Today’s imminent climate change threats are sea-level rise and extreme weather, with the latter especially showing regional impact.”

Contact: 734-763-0373, 734-663-9134, vdpluijm@umich.edu

Henry Pollack, professor emeritus of earth and environmental sciences, is the author of “A World Without Ice,” a book that explores how humans are dramatically changing that critical component of the global environment. He was one of the U-M scientists who contributed to the climate reports issued by the United Nations-sponsored panel that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former Vice President Al Gore. He is also a scientific adviser to Gore’s Climate Reality Project.

“The Paris climate conference will not solve the global climate crisis, but it will set the nations of the world off in the right direction,” Pollack said.

Contact: 734-474-3823 (cell phone), hpollack@umich.edu

Maria Carmen Lemos, professor of natural resources and environment, is an expert on the human dimensions of climate change, especially the intersection between development and adaptation, and the role of science in building adaptive capacity to climate impacts. She is a co-founder of Icarus, the Initiative on Climate Adaptation Research and Understanding through the Social Sciences.

Lemos served on the U.S. National Research Council’s Board on Environmental Change and Society and on NRC panels that produced the reports “Restructuring federal climate research to meet the challenges of climate change” and “America’s climate choices.”

Contact: 734-764-9315, lemos@umich.edu

Steve Skerlos, professor of mechanical engineering, studies and develops environmental and sustainable technologies. He can discuss the most economical ways to meet emissions targets, as well as the feasibility of carbon capture and storage. Recent research from his lab shows that coal-fired power plant carbon capture and storage, often assumed to play a significant role in a more sustainable energy future, could be much more costly to implement than previously thought.

“The conclusion is that renewables will be a cheaper alternative to reducing carbon emissions from coal, at least in the United States and likely globally,” Skerlos said about the new carbon capture study. “To us, this means policymakers need to stop wasting time hoping for technological silver bullets to sustain the status quo in the electric sector and quickly accelerate the transition from coal to renewables, or possibly, natural gas power plants with CCS.”

Contact: 734-615-5253, skerlos@umich.edu

Don Scavia, professor of natural resources and environment and environmental engineering, is director of the Graham Sustainability Institute. He was the lead convening author of the Midwest chapter in the latest U.S. National Climate Assessment.

Scavia, an aquatic ecologist, can discuss the anticipated impacts of human-caused climate change on the Midwest, which include more frequent and more intense heat waves, as well as an increased frequency of intense rainstorms and floods.

“Time is running out for getting the global greenhouse gas reduction commitments needed to avoid the most catastrophic human and ecosystem impacts,” he said. “The meeting in Paris is critical.”

Contact: 734-646-7808, scavia@umich.edu

Avik Basu, researcher in environmental psychology, is co-editor of the 2015 book “Fostering Reasonableness: Supportive Environments for Bringing Out Our Best.” He will be in Paris through Dec. 12 to observe the climate meeting as part of a 10-person U-M faculty and student delegation.

“Even though some type of agreement is likely to come out of this meeting, the climate change issue is not going to go away after Paris,” he said. “This generation of students will have an important role to play in the years ahead, and they need to understand the process that the United Nations has put in place. That way, in their future careers, they’ll know which levers they can push to continue the global effort to limit climate change.”

Contact: abasu@umich.edu

Andrew Hoffman, education director of the Graham Sustainability Institute, is professor of natural resources and environment, and management and organizations.

“When we hear leaders from India and other developing nations talk about fairness, what that speaks to is the disproportionate responsibility for richer nations to help poorer nations deal with what is a collective problem,” he said. “We should help others along who don’t have the same resources as we do.

“The solution for climate change will have to come from innovation from businesses. Major food companies are dealing with water shortages and other changes related to climate change.”

Contact: 734-763-9455, ajhoff@umich.edu

Barry Rabe, professor of public policy, political science and natural resources and environment, is a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. He surveys Americans on issues related to climate change in the National Surveys on Energy and Environment.

“The Paris climate meetings are testing whether recent signs of momentum in addressing climate change can be translated into significant national and international commitments,” he said. “In particular, it represents both opportunities and challenges for the Obama Administration in perhaps its final major act on the climate stage and also for Canada’s new Trudeau Administration as it attempts to shift course from the prior decade of policy.”

Contact: 734-615-9596, brabe@umich.edu

Joe Arvai, professor of natural resources and environment and busines administration, is director of the Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise. His expertise is in the area of decision-making, corporate sustainability and the triple-bottom-line.

“Like all of the COP meetings, COP21 in Paris presents an important opportunity to set the international tone on domestic policies and international agreements aimed at the mitigation of and adaptation to climate change,” he said. “Equally important is COP21’s Sustainable Innovation Forum. Even though it can be easily lost in the anticipation about international treaties, the forum provides a much-needed opportunity for the corporate community to share insights on how to bring innovative and meaningful green-business strategies to scale.”

Contact: 734-647-3891 (office), 734-834-2075 (cell), jlarvai@umich.edu, @DecisionLab