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GCEP Advanced Transportation Workshop
October 10-11, 2005
Stanford University
Frances C. Arrillaga Alumni Center

The Global Climate and Energy Project (GCEP) sponsored an advanced transportation workshop, which featured leading energy researchers from around the world discussing increased transportation efficiency, fuels that emit zero net carbon dioxide, and novel concepts for moving goods and people. The workshop concentrated on areas where basic research has the greatest potential to produce a breakthrough in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

Transportation accounts for one-fifth of global carbon dioxide emissions, mostly from the combustion of petroleum, according to the International Energy Association. This fraction is expected to approach one-third over the next century as more of the Earth's population uses energy for mobility. The challenge of significantly reducing carbon dioxide emissions from transportation is made more difficult by the mobile, distributed nature of millions of vehicles burning fuel.

Participants during the first day of the GCEP Advanced Transportation Workshop investigated how efficiency in transportation could result from lightweight materials, friction reduction or increased vehicle automation. The topic of the second day was the utilization of carbon-free and carbon-neutral energy for transportation in the form of electricity, biofuels, or synthesized hydrocarbons.

Keynote speakers included Dr. Amory B. Lovins, director of the Rocky Mountain Institute; Dr. Andreas Schäfer, a global transportation energy modeler at the University of Cambridge; and Dr. Michael Wang, a vehicle and fuel systems analyst at Argonne National Laboratory. Selected Presentations