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SUMMARY:&quot\;Solar Powered CO2-to-Fuel” - Professor Geoffrey Ozin\, Un
 iversity of Toronto
DTSTART:20151111T153000Z
DTEND:20151111T163000Z
UID:TALK62297@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Michael Gaultois
DESCRIPTION:The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported 
 in October 2013 that it is 95% certain humans are the cause of anthropogen
 ic climate change from the increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide gre
 enhouse gas emitted into the atmosphere from the combustion of fossil fuel
 s. In March 2014 the IPCC announced that our planet now faces irreversible
  climate change and our only choice going forward is an assessment of risk
 \, vulnerability\, mitigation\, adaptation and cost (http://www.ipcc.ch/).
  Let’s refer to this ‘burn-and-adapt’ scenario as Plan A. It appears
  to me that what is missing from the ongoing greenhouse gas climate-change
  debate is a credible Plan B\, namely an alternative course of action for 
 use if Plan A should fail. What I mean by Plan B is a ‘science-based tec
 hnological solution’ with an accompanying action road-map to enable a gl
 obal scale energy transition from our current one – which is dependent o
 n the finite supply of oil\, coal and gas – to one founded on a new ener
 gy source that would be able to sustain a global society\; particularly af
 ter the emission of an estimated Trillion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere 
 through the burning of fossil fuels (http://trillionthtonne.org/\, http://
 www.climatecommuniques.com/\,http://www.carbontracker.org/).\n\nIn this le
 cture I will explain that the answer to this billion dollar question is to
  be found at the scale of billionths of a meter in the emerging field of s
 olar energy nanomaterials that I believe will power a new CO2 global econo
 my\, producing fuels and chemicals\, a stable climate\, a clean environmen
 t\, and a sustainable and safe renewable energy future for society. The vi
 sion of a new CO2 economy that I will describe in this lecture presents a 
 credible science and engineering paradigm\, with a calculable cost\, asses
 sable risk and definable benefit over a quantifiable development time peri
 od. By contrast\, the protracted climate change debate with its opposing f
 orces appears to be grid-locked\, increasing the economic and human cost o
 f not having a credible Plan B.
LOCATION:Wolfson Lecture Theatre\, Department of Chemistry
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