Turning A Carbon Footprint into a Carbon Wave

It's time to think bigger about mitigating climate change.

Measures such as recycling, turning off lights and reducing energy use are great, but making a real impact is going to take systemic change, said Leah Stokes, a political scientist, energy expert and climate communicator from UC Santa Barbara.

Stokes, the keynote speaker for the April 13 Distinguished Climate Speaker Series event at UC Merced, argued that we need to move away from a narrow focus on reducing individual carbon footprints. Instead, she advocates a "carbon wave" approach to collective action that promotes structural policy change and builds clean electricity and electrification at scale.

"We have the power to change the system around us," said Stokes, who has a book about the carbon wave to be published this fall. "But we can only do that by working with others."

Stokes was the second invited speaker in the series, hosted by the Sierra Nevada Research Institute and emerging UC Merced Earth Institute, featuring leading experts discussing climate change impacts and solutions. The first event in the series featured renowned climate researcher Michael Mann.

UC Merced electrical engineering Professor Sarah Kurtz, who opened the afternoon session, highlighted the key roles solar energy and battery use play in reducing dependence on fossil fuels. The amount of electricity produced by solar panels has doubled every two years. Just as importantly, Kurtz said, battery storage has grown even faster, sometimes even doubling in a single year. That means energy can be gathered during the day and stored for when it's needed.

"This is a really amazing success story for both solar and batteries," Kurtz said.

Solutions that reconsider timing and placement -- for example, installing solar panels over workplace parking lots to charge cars during the day -- align energy use with abundant clean energy.

Daytime load shifting "reduces needs of battery storage or a distribution line," she said. This is just one strategy that can transform our energy infrastructure.

"We need to work as a group…I would assert we can have a bigger impact if we are wise in our choices," she said.

Stokes agreed. She said people can start by taking steps at home, and then those can become part of a larger movement to change energy infrastructure.

"You are a fossil fuel power plant operator if you have a gas stove or water heater or furnace in your house," she said. "You can change that into an induction stove, heat pump water heater, HVAC and electric car and suddenly you're a clean power plant operator. That is infrastructure change." With 121 million households in the United States, electrifying all of them would be a major move toward reducing greenhouse gases.

But those changes won't happen unless they make financial sense. Kurtz and Stokes both said the key to green electricity's success is making it accessible to people with lower incomes.

"Solar is now the least expensive way to generate electricity," Kurtz said. "You can make a high-cost system, and often we are incentivizing the expensive way to do it. What we need to do is incentivize to do it the cheapest way."

During a panel discussion after her talk, moderator and UC Merced political science Professor Nathan Monroe asked Stokes about how to inspire collective action.

That's going to take policies - both incentives and requirements - from the government, Stokes said, arguing a "carrots and sticks" approach.

She said though some of the environmental measures of recent years were wiped out in the federal "Big Beautiful Bill," many remain, including manufacturing incentives and support for batteries.

"As we get economies of scale, prices come down," she said, incentivizing further adoption. And for late or reluctant adopters, "we have requirements where you (eventually) have to replace gas with electric."

The energy transition is no longer hypothetical, Stokes and Kurtz agreed. It is underway, and the challenge is how fast and how fairly we can complete it.

"I am actually very hopeful," Stokes said "There's so much possibility of change. Imagine if all of us took on this challenge and stopped thinking about our carbon footprint and started thinking about our carbon wave."