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“Laying the Groundwork for ‘Getting to Neutral’ in the State of Florida” Report Featuring PCGS Faculty, Dr. Kebreab Ghebremichael

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On November 5th, Dr. Kebreab Ghebremichael, PCGS Associate Professor, presented at the Florida Climate Week organized by the VoLo Foundation. The conference highlighted the Florida Climate Institute’s recently published report “Laying the Groundwork for ‘Getting to Neutral’ in the State of Florida”. In this project, faculty and interns at the University of South Florida and Florida International University – along with other Florida stakeholders – contributed their expertise to research the greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory sectors of energy. This project was made possible thanks to the sponsorship by the Environmental Defense Fund.

The report summarized the historical and baseline GHG emissions from 1990 to 2018, as well as future projections of emissions using 2018 as the reference year. As reported by Dr. Ghebremichael, electricity generation and transportation were the two main contributors, constituting approximately 82% of the total gross GHG emissions. The project accounted 6 GHGs: carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride. Dr. Ghebremichael said that dealing with the energy sector is key to achieving net-neutral by 2050. This would require converting the primary energy resource from fossil fuels to renewable energy (primarily solar) and expanding electric vehicles (EV) use which will require expansion of EV charging infrastructure.

According to the report, despite the increasing trend in total GHG emissions recorded between 2005 and 2018, GHG emissions per capita and per million USD Gross State Product witnessed a declining trend due to increased efficiency measures based on advances in technology, processes, and practices. “This is encouraging, in terms of possibly achieving net zero in the future”, said Dr. Ghebremichael.

Get access to the full report here

Learn more about the Florida Climate Week here.

Learn more about the VoLo Foundation here.

Learn more about the Environmental Defense Fund here.