Gretchen Goldman (US Dept. of Transportation), “From the White House to the Right of Way: Addressing Climate Change and Environmental Justice in the Nation’s Transportation System” (BIOMES)

This talk is co-hosted with the Yale Center for Natural Carbon Capture.

 

About the Seminar:

 

To avoid the worst impacts of climate change and tackle longstanding environmental injustices, our nation and the world must reduce greenhouse gas emissions as rapidly as possible. In the US, the transportation sector is responsible for one third of greenhouse gas emissions; thus, transportation decarbonization must be prioritized across all modes. At the same time, the transportation sector itself is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Further, American transportation systems have disproportionately and adversely affected underserved and overburdened communities, including air, heat, and noise pollution, increased roadway fatalities, underinvestment in transportation infrastructure, and discriminatory housing and land-use practices that impede access to safe and reliable transportation options. Climate change stands to worsen these inequities through its impacts on air pollution, heat island effects, extreme weather, and other effects. As the transportation sector is decarbonized and made more resilient, it is critical that equity be addressed to ensure our future transportation infrastructure results in better outcomes for everyone, especially communities with environmental justice concerns. Meeting these three challenges of transportation decarbonization, resilient infrastructure, and environmental justice necessitates research and development of new technologies, including novel environmental monitoring and modeling, digitalization, artificial intelligence and machine-learning, integrated multimodal transportation systems, innovative design solutions, and other advances. Leveraging the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Inflation Reduction Act, and other policy and technological advancements, US Department of Transportation is working to tackle the climate crisis through a new Climate Change Research and Technology Program. This talk with cover Federal efforts to advance a transformative, decarbonized, more resilient and more equitable transportation system for all.

 

About the Series:

 

Over the last twelve years, the Yale School of the Environment has held a weekly seminar series, called BIOMES, which has been the School’s flagship forum for bringing cutting-edge research and impactful work to the community. BIOMES stands for ‘Bridging Issues & Optimizing Methods in Environmental Studies”

 

 Food Provided (Food is provided for in-person attendees only. )