DUBAI, UAE — The University of Alberta’s world-leading expertise on energy and environmental solutions will be in the spotlight at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) in Dubai, UAE, as leaders from around the world seek out innovative solutions to the most pressing climate-related challenges.
U of A president Bill Flanagan, who is representing the collective voices of the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN) at the conference for the second straight year, and Aminah Robinson Fayek, U of A vice-president of research and innovation, will headline a panel titled “Net Zero Energy Solutions: Partnerships to Get Technologies to Market” on Dec. 5.
Flanagan will highlight the U of A’s strategic partnerships with government, industry, Indigenous communities and academia, and the university’s leading research excellence in energy and the environment — with a focus on net-zero energy solutions.
Many areas of U of A expertise forged the backbone of the science used to develop climate policy — for instance, the Alberta government’s newly minted Alberta Carbon Capture Incentive Program, which will provide project developers with a 12 per cent grant to build facilities to store carbon. This strategic measure, designed to attract billions in investment into Alberta’s retooled energy sector, would not be possible without the U of A’s unparalleled work in carbon capture and storage, particularly engineering professor Rick Chalaturnyk’s decades of work in the area.
Chalaturnyk’s team is working on a first-of-its-kind project on a proposed geothermal site south of Grande Prairie that will not only result in carbon offsets equivalent to taking nearly 21,000 cars off the road, but will also eventually generate net-zero energy by using carbon dioxide instead of water to pump geothermal heat up from deep below the Earth’s surface.
“No other university in Canada is at the forefront of developing energy and climate solutions in the same way as the U of A. The breadth, depth and relevance of our activity is unmatched,” says Flanagan.
The panel, which is being moderated by Robinson Fayek, includes Flanagan; Laura Kilcrease, CEO, Alberta Innovates; Arlene Strom, Chief Sustainability Officer, Suncor; Michel Laberge, Founder and Chief Science Officer, General Fusion; and Rebecca Schulz, Alberta’s Minister of Environment and Protected Areas.