Carbon Mitigation Initiative Held 12th Annual Meeting on April 16-17, 2013

Holly Welles ・ High Meadows Environmental Institute
CMI Meeting 20132013 CMI group photo (Photos: Frank Wojciechowski)

Members of the Carbon Mitigation Initiative (CMI) program gathered at Princeton University for the CMI 12th Annual Meeting on April 16 and 17. Over 90 participants attended the two-day event including Princeton faculty and students; colleagues from BP, the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL), Harvard’s Energy Technology Innovation Policy Program (ETIP), and New York University’s Center for Urban Science and Progress; and members of the CMI Advisory Council.

CMI Meeting 2013 2013 meeting participants

CMI participants presented new areas of research that complement established efforts already underway in the fields of carbon science, low-carbon energy, fluids and energy, and policy and integration. One plenary session highlighted new initiatives in fossil energy including fracking and water quality, modeling hydrates and brines, and the combining of fossil energy with renewables. Other sessions addressed current understanding of land and ocean carbon sinks with a specific new emphasis on the Southern Ocean. During the first of two deep dives, invited panelists from academia, non-profit organizations, and industry discussed attribution and extreme weather events, specifically heat waves and hurricanes. The second deep dive addressed the current political landscape in Washington D.C.

<img alt=” src=” http:=”” news.princeton.edu=”” uploads=”” 273=”” image=”” 2971_sm.jpg”=”” style=”width: 350px; height: 235px;”> Presenters from GFDL during the first deep dive on attribution and extreme events. From left to right, Keith Dixon, research meteorologist, Climate Impacts and Extremes Group; Gabriel Vecchi, research oceanographer, Climate Change, Variability, and Prediction Group; and Gabriel Lau, lead scientist, Climate Diagnostics Group.

At an evening reception, Ellen Williams, chief scientist at BP, awarded the 2013 CMI Best Paper Award for Postdoctoral Fellows. Williams named Gennady Gor, a postdoctoral research associated in Jean-Hervé Prévost’s group, as recipient of this year’s award. The selected paper, “Effects of Thermal Stresses on Caprock Integrity During CO2 Storage,” provided a significant step toward assessing risks of CO2 leakage from deep saline aquifers. The results show that injection of CO2 at temperature close to the ambient value in the aquifer significantly reduces the risk of caprock fracturing and, therefore, of possible leakage. The paper was published in the International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control in 2013.

In addition, CMI co-directors, Robert Socolow and Stephen Pacala, made the announcement that Princeton University and BP International Limited recently signed a letter of intent to extend the term of their joint CMI Research Project Agreement for an additional five (5) years, to December 2020. The previous Agreement was set to expire at the end of 2015.

CMI Meeting 2013 Second deep dive presenters on the Washington scene. Left to right, David Hawkins, director of climate programs, the Natural Resources Defense Council and member of CMI Advisory Council and Nathaniel Keohane, vice president, International Climate, Environmental Defense Fund.

Led by Pacala and Socolow since its formation in 2000, CMI aims to lead the way to a compelling and sustainable solution of the carbon and climate change problem. For additional information about CMI’s current research, see the newly released CMI 2012 Annual Report.

CMI Meeting 2013 From left to right: Robert Socolow, co-director of CMI Policy and Integration Group and professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering; Ellen Williams, chief scientist, BP; Gennady Gor, recipient of the 2013 CMI Best Paper Award for Postdoctoral Fellows; and Jean-Hervé Prévost, professor of civil and environmental engineering.