Rethinking Education for Community Energy Transitions – A Road Map for Accelerated Implementation

Globally thousands of cities aim to completely decarbonize their energy use in homes, buildings, industry, and transportation, by no later than 2050. Very few are on track to meet these goals. All too often, this underperformance is interpreted either as a lack of real commitment to the goals, or a lack of cost-effective technology. The presentation will explore the experience of a number of colleges and cities in North America to understand why implementation falls short, and what are the key factors of success to reverse this pattern. The result suggests a major rethink of the educational offering provided by Universities, Colleges and P-12 School systems could embrace both the challenges and opportunities presented by the energy transition.