Global Solutions and Outreach Programs (GSOP)

In October 2018, the AIChE Board of Directors approved formation of The Climate Solutions Community (TCSC) within the AIChE Institute for Sustainability. The vision of this community is audacious.  In its March 31, 2019 press release, AIChE told the world that TCSC will be “a global collaboration that will bring together the expertise of a diversity of engineers and scientists to help industry and society address and manage the effects of climate change … to develop a portfolio of technical and government policy solutions necessary to address both industrial and societal challenges related to climate.”

TCSC has conducted events at both 2020 AIChE National Meetings.  Local TCSC initiatives have been formed in support of the TCSC vision. The first was in Nigeria under the leadership of Cosmos Okechukwu. On May 14, 2019, several colleagues joined me at a Starbucks in Houston TX to discuss forming local TCSC initiatives. In July 2019, I met Eric Townsend at the Carbon Management Technology Conference. He was retiring in late 2019 and felt compelled to do something to address global warming, so he and several of his Chicago area colleagues formed another local group.

The Texas local initiative combined forces with the Engineering, Science and Technology Council of Houston to conduct a virtual climate solutions symposium on August 22, 2020. A five-speaker panel presented on climate science, ERCOT grid reliability, advanced nuclear energy, carbon fee and dividend, and energy governance. Almost 200 were in attendance.

The three unofficial local initiatives have not organized formally, as TCSC Bylaws remain under review. At some point, we hope to establish formal ties between these local initiatives, The Climate Solutions Community, and another important initiative, Climate Collaboration.

Climate Collaboration has a vision to engage all climate-concerned organizations and foster collaboration rather than confrontation, such as between those with disparate views on renewables and nuclear energy. Within Climate Collaboration, the Global Solutions and Outreach Programs will internationally develop national, regional, and global action plans to stabilize the Earth’s energy balance to halt warming, adjust it to return to prior conditions, cope with climate change impacts, and address issues such as ocean acidification. The Outreach Program will provide engineering advice to US States, communities and industry and enable two-way communications from local levels to global plans. We intend to raise $350 million to hire 300 full-time and 4,000 part-time chemical engineers and others for this work. With the US taking the lead, we anticipate that all countries will join this cooperative effort. Participants will apply the Wicked-Problem Approach, as taught by Dick Hutchinson, PhD ChE, to address this seemingly intractable problem. Our strategic goal: Empower young engineers and others with the boldness, energy, and personal drive to solve the global warming problem.

Please contact Tom Rehm for additional information.