The University of Michigan is leading research, analyzing new technologies, and convening and expanding programs and partnerships around critical topics pertaining to climate and energy.
From assessing climate resilience strategies for the Great Lakes region to spearheading progress in alternative and renewable fuel sources, U-M researchers are working to elevate clean, sustainable, and equitable solutions across an array of disciplines. Some of our key initiatives in climate and energy include: the President’s Commission on Carbon Neutrality, the Great Lakes Integrated Sciences and Assessments Program, the Global CO2 Initiative, and the Urban Energy Justice Lab (UEJ). Find U-M experts in sustainability and environmental science, across fields and academic units.
The story of worsening climate extremes — almost every story — is also a story of failing infrastructure. Much of existing human infrastructure was built with the climate of the 20th century in mind, rather than the rapidly worsening climates of the 21st century.
“We are not accustomed to thinking about equity in the context of innovation. But in recent years, we have begun to recognize that marginalized communities — including those who are low-income and those who come from historically disadvantaged communities of color — are often unable to access the benefits of science and technology, but may be disproportionately subject to the harms.”
Many of the benefits that humanity derives from the natural world, like the provisioning of oxygen, are priceless. Climate change can threaten these services through the loss of species or shifts in species’ size or abundance. For example, warming temperatures have reduced the size of many birds over the last four decades; this is emblematic of the scale of climate change impacts on the world’s biological diversity.
The transportation sector is the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S., and a lot of attention has been devoted to electric passenger vehicles and their potential to help reduce those emissions. But with the rise of online shopping and just-in-time shipping, electric delivery fleets have emerged as another opportunity to reduce the transportation sector’s environmental impact.
Like many regions across the country, southwestern Michigan is preparing for the closure of a nuclear power facility, the Palisades Nuclear Power Plant. The impact of this transition on a community can lead to reduced tax base, lost employment, reduction in services and an unused site.
Something highly unusual is happening in the western United States. Record hot temperatures, some above 115 degrees Fahrenheit, recently spanned the Southwest northward into the interior West, and now a dangerous heatwave is hitting the Pacific Northwest. The news has been full of references to ongoing western drought and predictions of yet another extreme wildfire year. Even so, in reality, the story is worse.
