Developing and Assessing Ideas for Social and Behavioral Research to Speed Efficient and Equitable Industrial Decarbonization: A Workshop

Meeting US and international climate goals will require sweeping changes to the global energy system through sustained and historic levels of innovation and infrastructure deployment in a period of less than 30-years. While all sectors of the economy must transition, the industrial sector is perhaps the most challenging. This sector accounts for nearly a quarter of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and more than 16% of U.S.

GDP. How can the social and behavioral sciences help to accelerate this industrial decarbonization in an efficient and equitable way from the perspective of both the economy and the climate? The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) will appoint a committee to convene an expert group for a public workshop to explore and assess an integrated social and behavioral science research agenda to address this question.

A proceedings will be published and disseminated to inform policy and decision makers and the broader public of the presentations, discussions, and outcomes of the workshop.

To address how to advance the social and behavioral tools for effective and equitable transition of key industrial sectors (e.g., chemical manufacture, iron and steel, hydrogen production, carbon capture and storage), high-level papers will be commissioned by leading researchers and practitioners in the social, behavioral, and economic sciences and industry. These papers will be presented in Part I of the workshop, and debated and discussed in Part II, with the aim of advancing a priority action research agenda for industrial decarbonization.

The proceedings of this workshop are expected to be of broad interest and impact to policy and decision-makers in the public and private sector charged with moving the US industrial sector toward decarbonization while maintaining a thriving economy and society.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.