5 Questions with Sustainability Expert Marilyn Brown

Posted September 3, 2021

Marilyn Brown, Regents Professor and Brook Byers Professor of Sustainable Systems in the School of Public Policy, is a noted expert on energy and climate policy. In the wake of extreme weather events, the recent IPCC climate change report, and other issues, we talked with her about current events in climate change, energy, and policy solutions.

 

So, we are seeing a lot of record events linked to climate change right now — record heat waves, record temperatures, record flooding. What do you think the most urgent events are?

I am seeing a transition in focus of climate media and scientists from the gradual rise in temperatures to the increasing frequency of more extreme weather events. There are droughts, fires, hurricanes, floods, and rising sea levels associated with climate change.

For years, scientists have focused on the link between increasing CO₂ emissions and rising temperatures, and the scientific basis for that is finally well established. Now a science of “attribution” is emerging that apportions the causality of extreme climate events to increasing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere. Another advance is the mapping of climate vulnerabilities, which has become quite sophisticated. There are no “safe havens.”

 

In February, Texas suffered a major power crisis due to severe winter storms. Can you give us a rundown on what happened there?

Let’s see. The precipitating weather event was an unusual winter storm that brought record cold temperatures to Texas. And Texas utilities were not prepared for that level of freezing. As a result, both natural gas pipelines and wind turbines froze, interrupting supplies of both gas and electricity.

Billions of dollars and hundreds of lives were lost in Texas in February. Investments simply had not been made to prepare for extreme events. The catastrophe was a result of failed policy oversight, a flawed governance system, and inadequate transmission infrastructure. The continental U.S. electric power system consists of three independently synchronized grids linked by only a few low-capacity power lines. Texas is essentially isolated from the Eastern and Western Interconnection systems, making it “independent” (which was its goal) but also vulnerable.

 

Getting down to the local level — how can the average person be more energy efficient in the middle of a hot Georgia summer?

Energy efficiency is indeed important: we want to be comfortable but also keep our utility bills low. There are so many opportunities to do this. I’ve always called the South the Saudi Arabia of energy efficiency because we are so inefficient. LED lighting, programmable thermostats, smart appliances, and electric heat pumps are just a few of our many options. Our homes need better insulation, and air leakages need to be sealed. Home audits by your local utility are sometimes free of charge, and with blower door testing, they can determine how leaky your home is. Perhaps the most affordable energy-efficiency investment is to replace all of your incandescent bulbs with LEDs. Replacing just one incandescent bulb that you use three hours per day with a $4 LED would cut $7 from your annual electricity bill. That may not seem like much, but if everyone in Georgia did that, the savings would be $74 million, and a lot of pollution would be avoided. 

 

You co-lead the Core Research Team for Drawdown Georgia. How important is this work, and what are the impacts of decreasing CO₂ emissions for the state?

Well, perhaps our most exciting accomplishment is that we’ve created a carbon reduction roadmap for the state that will enable Georgia to reduce its CO₂ emissions by 50% by 2030, relative to its 2005 emissions — the benchmark year used by the Paris Climate Accord. The state could meet its fair share of this global commitment by following our roadmap of 20 high-impact solutions. These include lots of actions that individuals can take, like adopting a plant-rich diet, recycling, composting, driving an electric vehicle, walking and biking, investing in solar panels, and much more.

 

What can we at Georgia Tech do to make an impact against climate change and/or be more energy efficient?

We are advancing Georgia Tech’s carbon-smart profile. There is a lot of exciting work by our campus sustainability team. One near-term challenge is the natural gas plant located right behind the DM Smith Building, which houses the School of Public Policy. That offers a big opportunity for the Georgia Tech community to transition to cleaner fuels. I hope solar will play a role in that, along with energy-efficiency upgrades.

Of course, educating our students and getting them out there in the business and sustainability worlds to create technologies, programs, novel solutions, and policies is the best thing we can do as a university. This is already a pathway that’s making a big difference in the state, the U.S., and around the globe. Training students holistically with an understanding of the human dimensions of technology is also essential.

We’ve got great stories to tell. Our alumni are involved in climate issues across Georgia and all over the world, in D.C., San Francisco, Milan, Paris, and Santiago. You name the place, and we have graduates of Georgia Tech contributing to a more sustainable future somewhere nearby.