Town Hall Meeting: Planning for the future: Extreme weather, changing climate, and energy sustainability in large urban areas
In 2012 there were 11 billion dollar weather and climate disasters in the United States according to the NCDC. Several of these disasters directly impacted major cities and urban areas. The high population density and increasing growth of large metropolitan areas makes stability and sustainability of energy of critical importance in the urban environment. An important factor in the stability and sustainability of energy in the urban environment is weather. Temperature extremes magnify energy demands in heavily populated areas, while storms like post-tropical storm Sandy present risks to the distribution grid. Extreme weather in a small geographic region can have large consequences for urban environments in terms of reliability and emergency management response . Cities are a great opportunity to increase weather dependent renewable energy production for reliability and for reduction of greenhouse gases. The climate is changing and weather extremes seem to be occurring more frequently. With this in mind, this town hall aims to discuss where do we go from here? This town hall meeting will be co-sponsored by the AMS Energy Committee and the AMS Board on the Urban Environment. Some of the possible questions for discussion are:
- What are the meteorological and climate challenges of integrating more renewable energy generation in urban areas?
- What are the evolving policies related to energy in the urban environment and are the aims of these policies realistic?
- What research is needed by the meteorological and climate communities in order to promote energy sustainability , resiliency, and security in the urban environment?
- What should urban areas be doing to adapt and mitigate the effects of extreme weather hazards and climate change?
- Who should be leading the charge to make such changes – ie: private entities, local, state, federal governments, a collaboration?
For additional information, please contact Manda Adams ([email protected]), Jorge Gonzalez ([email protected]) orKevin Stenson ([email protected]).