MIT Climate

Climate change attribution is the science that links global climate change to specific weather events. Instead of making general statements, like climate change will lead to more extreme heatwaves, scientists can shift to more targeted ones: this heatwave, at this time and place, was worsened by climate change. In our newest climate explainer, Andrew Pershing, Director of Attribution Science and Climate Fingerprinting at Climate Central, Inc., breaks down how this attribution science works and how we can benefit from the information it provides. Attribution relies on two types of evidence: weather records and climate models. They use different methods and data, which means they can be used to check each other’s results. In many places, weather records have been kept for centuries, offering us a direct comparison between today’s weather patterns, and those from before significant human-caused climate change. That lets us clearly see when events like heatwaves depart from the historical norm. Climate models, meanwhile, replicate the Earth’s climate physics, predicting what weather patterns are possible under different conditions. These models can be run both with and without the buildup of climate-warming greenhouse gases humans have added into the atmosphere, providing another way to compare what weather is possible today, with what weather was possible historically. Together, these lines of evidence let scientists reach conclusions like: this wildfire was twice as likely to occur because of climate change; or, this hurricane dropped 10% more rain than we would expect without climate change. It is clear that the world will have to prepare for more extreme weather, but climate change attribution makes the link clearer and more precise. This information can be crucial to city planners, policymakers, and disaster responders, among others, as they plan for our future climate. Climate change attribution has even found a role in the legal system. In a recent suit in the European Court of Human Rights, Swiss citizens used attribution studies to argue that their government’s failure to take action on climate change had directly contributed to deaths from heatwaves. In April 2024, that court ruled that the Swiss government had failed to protect its people and must live up to its climate targets.

Beef creates more climate-warming greenhouse gases than any other major food source. But is it possible to have cattle ranching without the climate impact? Beef will always contribute more to climate change than fruits and vegetables, but there are ways to include some beef production in a well-balanced agricultural system, explains Greg Sixt, Director of the MIT Food and Climate Systems Transformation Alliance at J-WAFS at MIT, in our newest piece for Ask MIT Climate. Although eating less beef is the most straightforward solution to reducing emissions, it’s not necessarily fair to ask people to go without beef. In some low and middle income countries people actually eat more meat to achieve healthy diets, and livestock production can be an important stream of income for smaller farmers. “Focusing on beef production alone misses the point. Food systems are complex. Yes, beef production has significant negative impacts to the climate and environment, but at the same time, you can’t have healthy agroecosystems without livestock,” says Sixt. Changing how cattle are grazed, or exploring alternative feed additives like seaweed, are among the ways scientists and ranchers are now trying to achieve lower-carbon beef.

The MIT Climate Change Engagement Program is now a part of Climate HQ, a new office created under the Climate Project at MIT. “It’s a very exciting time to be working on climate topics at MIT, as the Institute deepens its commitment to making a real-world impact on the course of climate change. At MIT Climate HQ, our public engagement projects will now join the heart of that effort,” says Managing Editor Aaron Krol, who will assume leadership of the program in September 2024. https://lnkd.in/dew_-RkC

Electricity is fundamental to our everyday lives — we use it to turn our lights on and power our phones. But most of us don’t make our own electricity, so where does it come from? The answer is the electric grid: an interconnected network of power lines and other infrastructure that allows us to move electricity from power plants into our homes. Today, as the world works to move from climate-warming fossil fuels to clean energy, the electric grid is evolving—as research scientist Pablo Duenas Martinez of the MIT Energy Initiative lays out in our short explainer. Today’s grid needs to be able to handle “variable” energy sources, like solar and wind power, which are harder to control than coal-fired plants, as well as managing the excess energy coming from distributed energy sources, like rooftop solar panels. These changes drive demand for new transmission lines, distribution systems, energy storage, sensors and smart appliances. Read the full explainer: https://lnkd.in/gZbWMsHB

Our journalism fellow Alex Baumhardt is covering the ins and outs of a new plan for Elliott State Research Forest, Oregon’s oldest state forest, which officials hope to transition from research and logging to “carbon crediting” and management for its climate benefits. The piece was published in the Oregon Capital Chronicle. https://lnkd.in/gn5BCNRG 

Last week, a giant, floating offshore wind turbine embarked on a 50-hour, 191-nautical mile journey across southern China. The “OceanX” is the world’s largest floating wind power platform, says Mingyang Smart Energy, the company behind the innovation. What makes the structure unique? The OceanX is made of a double tower, main engine, and rotors, and adopts a “downwind” design, meaning the rotors are placed on the back of the platform. This helps it move smoothly and stay steady in the water, as it's designed to be deployed in deep seas and withstand extreme typhoons. Over the past 40 years, turbine designs have steadily evolved. Today, they pivot to automatically catch the wind at the best angle. Turbine blades have also become longer and lighter, allowing them to turn faster with less wind. New innovations like the OceanX continue the tradition of seeking the most efficient, adaptable ways to turn wind into clean electricity. (To learn more, read our short explainer on wind energy: https://lnkd.in/gz9eVz3U). Once commissioning is completed, the new platform is expected to generate up to 54 million kWh annually, which is enough to power 30,000 households, says a new article from the Maritime Exclusive. Read the full piece here: https://lnkd.in/dA7NEw2w 

Solar panels have been a mainstream source of energy for decades, meaning many are now reaching the end of their 20-30 year lifetimes. But the ruggedness makes these panels good at surviving the outdoors also makes them hard to recycle. The problem isn’t that solar recycling is impossible, explains Prof. Meng Tao of the Arizona State University Global Institute of Sustainability and Innovation, but that the process has yet to reach a financial break-even point. It simply costs more to recycle panels—about $20—than the $10 or $12 you can get for the recovered materials. Still, recyclability can be solved. For our latest edition of Ask MIT Climate, Tao helps break down the panel design innovations, new recycling techniques, and policy changes that would be needed to make solar energy as easy to dispose of as it is good for the climate during its lifetime. Read the full piece: https://lnkd.in/gMikVPsd

Applications for the Spring 2025 Environmental Solutions Journalism Fellowship are now open! The fellowship supports freelance or staff journalists associated with U.S. local or regional newsrooms in developing a high-impact news project that reports on how climate change and/or the shift to a low-carbon economy relates to local communities and regions. Fellows will receive training from MIT faculty and staff, access to MIT data and resources, funding, and more. Special consideration will be given to projects centered on climate solutions within food and waste systems, including food waste and methane emissions in waste management. Applications will be accepted until 10/14: https://lnkd.in/eq2zib-d And for more information, check out our call for applications: https://lnkd.in/ewPT9zkZ

A new “superhighway” will connect Scotland to England—one made of electrical cables. Its purpose? Transferring renewable energy between the two countries. The project exists to take advantage of a quirk of renewable energy: in this case, mainly abundant wind power in Scotland. Often, renewable sources like solar and wind give us more electricity than we can actually use, because these projects need to be “overbuilt” to cope with times when sun and wind are scarce. Typically, this energy is either stored in big batteries, or it goes to waste. But there are other options for spare clean electricity, as Prof. Paul Joskow of the MIT Department of Economics helped explain for our Ask MIT Climate series—including building big transmission lines to move excess energy where it can be used. (You can read the full piece here: https://lnkd.in/gjWZGF6Y) The U.K. highway, named the Eastern Green Link, has received £3.4 billion in funding from Ofgem, an industry regulator. In a new article from The Times, offshore delivery director for National Grid Zac Richardson explains, “Ofgem’s funding decision is a major milestone for [the project], the single largest investment in a UK electricity transmission infrastructure project.” Once operational, the link will be capable of powering up to two million homes during boom times for Scottish wind. You can read the full piece here: https://lnkd.in/gpG7YGKC 

Solar panels and wind turbines make energy from the weather available to them, but sometimes these sources give us more electricity than we can use. As our energy grid becomes cleaner, more and more places may find themselves dealing with excess energy—which presents both the challenge and the opportunity of finding new ways to use it. The conventional answer is to store this energy for later, in big batteries or other large-scale energy storage systems. But those are expensive. So are there other options? Absolutely, says Paul Joskow, professor emeritus in the MIT Department of Economics and former director of the MIT - Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research, in our newest Ask MIT Climate piece. One solution is “smart” electric meters and chargers that pay attention to electricity generation and prices when people don’t, and shift charging and other tasks to times when more renewable energy is available. Some industries, like hydrogen and chemical production, can also power up and down with changes in wind and solar generation. And a larger system of transmission lines would help send excess renewable energy to places where it can be used. But even with these measures, a cost-effective clean energy system will often generate more solar and wind energy than we can use, says Joskow—and that’s okay. “It’s inevitable if you have a deeply decarbonized system with wind and solar generation that are dominant, because there just are going to be hours where the demand is low and the supply is high.” Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/gjWZGF6Y