What is the future of agriculture in California?

04/12/23 • 39 min

On March 30, 2023, in partnership with the Livermore Lab Foundation and The Maddy Institute, Climate Now hosted a one day summit in Fresno, CA, examining the intersection of climate change and agriculture. Agriculture is both a leading driver of greenhouse gas emissions (contributing nearly one fifth of all global emissions) and a potential solution to removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Fresno, located in the heart of California's Central Valley, also illuminates the other side of the agriculture-climate change coin: one of the nation's most valuable agricultural regions, producing over a quarter of the nation's food, is threatened by extreme droughts - and this year, extreme floods - brought on by climate change.

At Climate Now's one day summit, farmers, business owners, scientists, policymakers, educators and activists gathered to discuss how to prepare for the changing climate in California and other agriculture producing regions, the challenges inherent to adaptation, and the opportunities that could come with adopting climate friendly technologies and practices.

For this week's episode, join us for the key takeaways from this event.

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For this week's episode, join us for the key takeaways from this event.

Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.
Contact us at [email protected]
Visit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

Previous Episode

Making hydrogen and carbon black out of renewable natural gas

Renewable natural gas (RNG), made from the decomposition of organic waste like livestock manure, is not necessarily net-zero if it's burned to run a turbine or drive a car. But what if the RNG is not burned, but is rather pyrolyzed, breaking it down into hydrogen and another product called "carbon black," an essential component of car tires, among other things? Then the hydrogen can be used and the carbon black can be sold in solid form instead of releasing the carbon into the atmosphere. From its Nebraska-based plant, Monolith converts renewable methane into both green hydrogen and carbon black using the world's largest plasma torch (more about that in the episode). Now they are developing a commercial clean hydrogen operation, which they will use to create ammonia to sell for fertilizer.
Join us for our conversation with Monolith co-founder and CEO Rob Hanson to learn about methane pyrolysis, the markets for carbon-negative industrial products, and how the Inflation Reduction Act is supporting green (or clean) hydrogen production processes (like Monolith's) in the United States.

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Next Episode

The debate about nuclear's role in the clean energy transition

Every approach to decarbonizing the energy sector comes with its share of costs and benefits: renewables are cheap and clean, but require enormous amounts of land and are not always available when power is needed. Batteries provide useful back up power, but add cost to a renewable-supplied grid and compete with other needs for critical minerals like lithium and cobalt. Carbon capture on fossil fuel power plants can prevent stranded assets, but is expensive and could extend dependence on fossil fuels.

Net-zero pathway recommendations, like those from Princeton University, BloombergNEF, and the International Energy Agency, aim to maximize the benefits of these various solutions, while minimizing the costs. But the one technology whose role within this balancing act is the most controversial is nuclear power.

In our upcoming episode, we are joined by a panel of energy science and policy experts to understand the present role of nuclear power in our energy sector, why nuclear energy continues to be included in decarbonization scenarios, whether or not it should be, and how the industry would need to evolve for it to play an effective role in a clean energy future.

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Contact us at [email protected]
Visit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.