The 10th annual UNC Cleantech Summit took place on Thursday and Friday at the Friday Conference Center, featuring keynote speakers and discussions on topics related to a clean economy. The Summit welcomed academic, business, and government professionals working with clean technology to share their expertise and network. Students were also in attendance to gain insights and knowledge about various environmental industry topics. Co-hosted by the UNC Institute for the Environment and the Kenan-Flagler Business School’s Ackerman Center for Excellence in Sustainability, this year’s summit saw over 1,000 attendees.
Penny Gordon-Larsen, UNC’s vice chancellor for research, kicked off the event with a welcome address and introduced the first keynote speakers of the summit. She emphasized the shared mission of the co-hosts and institutions like Dominion Energy and the U.S. Department of Energy in accelerating solutions for social and environmental sustainability. This collaborative effort brings together bright minds from academia and industry to address critical issues faced by the state and the nation.
The advancement of technology and the growing demand for carbon reduction highlight the need for innovative tools to combat carbon levels in the atmosphere. A key theme across different clean technology sectors is the target of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. This goal, set by President Joe Biden in Executive Order 14057 in 2021, aims to reduce carbon emissions to achieve a balance between greenhouse gas produced and greenhouse gas emissions removed from the atmosphere.
One of the summit’s keynote speakers was David Turk, deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy, who discussed the progress made by the United States in meeting the net-zero commitment and outlined additional steps needed to reach that goal. Turk emphasized the necessity for increased government legislation and policies, as well as more clean technological innovation and entrepreneurship to stay on course towards achieving the net-zero objective.