United Nations Climate Change
Can Transition Engineers push the perspective? Push the discussion? Push the business practice? Push the policy? Push the discoveries? Push the changes?
The United Nations has, for more than 30 years, been bringing together dignitaries, delegates, and hopeful people around climate change. Transition Engineering was featured for the first time at the COP26 in a presentation at an IMechE side event. The reception of the engineers including the president of IMechE was very positive. At the UN meeting, all of the individual people I talked to wanted to find out more about Transition Engineering right away.
But - I have to say the main sessions of dignitaries and many of the presentations were definitely "Blah Blah Blah".
Theory 1 - when there is an understandable carbon downshift route that politicians can understand then they may add that to their blah blah and start to support it through policy. Thus, the work GATE is doing to create the perspective on change and the methods for change is critical.
Theory 2 - when the engineers and scientists and researchers currently taking public money to "work on" distractive tech like H2 and CCS and DAC... were to give honest and frank advice about the limits of the potential in the necessary time frame, and to start shifting their efforts into downshift of unsustainable practices and products... then GATE courses and professional leadership would be critical.
Watch the session where academics talk about hydrogen and CCS and efuels, and that wraps up with my presentation that "something different happens now" and why. Do you agree?