Event Detail

Towards Zero Carbon Transportation – The Role of Cities and Impacts on Communities

Towards Zero Carbon Transportation – The Role of Cities and Impacts on Communities

Wednesday, March 2, 2022, 18:00 via ZOOM

Pl. register here. You will receive the link to the Zoom session a day before the event.

 

A presentation and discussion with
Özge Kaplan, PhD, Senior Research Engineer, Center for Environmental Measurement and Modeling, Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

and

Rose-Anne Clermont, journalist and author

Many cities around the world, such as New York City, are establishing policies to reduce CO2 emissions from all energy sectors by 2050. As one of the major contributors to CO2 emissions, the transportation sector needs to transition to cleaner fuels. Cities can cost-effectively reduce both air and carbon emissions by electrifying their transportation fleets.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) developed an energy systems model – COMET – to study the environmental impact of electrifying modes of transportation. Energy system modeling captures the full system from all primary energy resources including electricity generation to end-use demands in the building, industrial, and transportation sectors. In their recent analysis, the EPA explored the role of electrification of passenger cars and fleets run by the city. The greatest improvements were seen in air quality when cities transitioned to cleaner fuels and electric power to operate their fleets, with buses most significantly reducing air pollution.

This talk will provide an overview of the transportation sector and its role in mitigating climate change and improving health and well-being of communities. This type of information can help cities worldwide reach their sustainable energy goals, mitigate climate change, and better protect human health and our environment.

A Program in support of Going Green – Education for Sustainability.

Dr. Özge Kaplan is Principal Investigator within the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Research and Development (ORD) since 2006. She has expertise in energy systems modeling, environmental system analysis, energy-environment and society interactions, uncertainty analysis, and decision support. Her research focuses on end-use energy sector technology and fuel trends in buildings, transportation and industrial sectors. She leads multiple research efforts in Air Climate and Energy and Sustainable and Healthy Communities Research Programs. Specifically, she is leading the development of City-based Optimization Model for Energy Technologies (COMET) and its application to New York City. This project explores economy, technology, and emission implications of energy use in buildings, and transportation in cities.

In 2014, Dr. Kaplan has won EPA's Russell Train Sustainability Award for the development, deployment, and dissemination of Municipal Solid Waste Decision Support Tool, which is a life-cycle based optimization framework designed to evaluate system-level economic and environmental impacts of sustainable materials management practices. Dr. Kaplan holds M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from North Carolina State University in Civil Engineering with minor in Operations Research and B.S. degree in Environmental Engineering from Middle East Technical University.

Rose-Anne Clermont is a Haitian-American journalist, editor, and writer who first came to Germany on a Fulbright Fellowship in 1999. She permanently moved to Berlin two years later and wrote about migration, integration, and climate, among other topics, for Clean Energy Wire, Spiegel OnlineDie ZeitThe New York Times, and other international media. For almost two years, she wrote a weekly column about identity, race, and politics for Berliner Zeitung. In 2020, Rose-Anne was an English editor at eu2020.de, Germany's official EU Council Presidency website. She spent many years working with NGOs that support journalism in developing countries and she was a lecturer of journalism at the University for Applied Sciences HMKW Berlin. She is also the author of a humorous memoir entitled Bushgirl: How I Got Stuck with the Germans (Random House Germany). Rose-Anne holds a liberal arts degree from Sarah Lawrence College and a master’s degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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