In its Climate Action Plan, Syracuse University outlines how it will be carbon neutral by 2040. Surprisingly, SU gets 35.46% of its total energy consumption from clean and renewable sources. Sustainability Management at SU reports that since 2005, the university has been purchasing “Green-E Certified American Wind” electricity. Although transitioning to renewable energy is immensely complicated, waiting until 2040 to become carbon neutral is not good enough. If the United States decarbonized its electric grid, though, SU could reach its goal sooner than in two decades.

Numerous barriers stand in the way of environmental protection, but these barriers should be torn down to help prevent the harmful effects of climate change. Rising carbon dioxide levels are drastically affecting the planet, even in Syracuse. It is undeniable that humans have a positive correlation with increasing emissions. With this being said, we have the power to change the trend, reduce emissions and return our planet to normalcy. But how do we do it, and how can SU aid in the fight?

Radical changes to our personal lives will not resolve rising CO2 emissions. No matter how many car pools, copious amounts of plant-based meals, unplugged devices and airplane rides you skip, you will not make up for the rest of the world’s carbon emissions. Sadly, while commendable, individual actions do very little. So, when we are told to analyze our micro-impact on CO2 emissions compared to the macro-problem of climate change, of course, we feel disappointment and hopelessness because we feel as though we cannot do enough.

Billions of people may be unable to change their ways due to limiting economic factors, contrary to those who simply choose not to change their ways. We are not the multinational corporations drilling for oil or the natural gas companies powering nearly everything in the U.S., emitting millions of metric tons of greenhouse gases every year. Where are our incentives to be environmentally conscious? Massive fossil fuel companies are polluting the Earth for profit. It is time for environmentally-conscious people at SU and around the country to come together and demand that the U.S. decarbonize the electric grid.

One solution that has the most potential is a Clean Electricity Standard through the budget reconciliation process in Congress. On July 12, 2021, Clean Energy Futures published a report titled “An 80×30 Clean Electricity Standard: Carbon, Costs, and Health Benefits,” which explains the economic advantages of decarbonizing the electric grid and why doing so is beneficial and necessary. 

Charles Driscoll, a professor of public administration and international affairs at SU, and Peter Wilcoxen, a professor of environmental systems at SU, were lead authors of the report, along with Kathy Fallon Lambert, a senior adviser at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The report shows that decarbonizing the electric grid will allow the U.S. to become 100% carbon neutral. The Clean Electricity Standard presents evidence that the climate benefits of the plan outweigh the estimated costs that climate change poses. The standard would also prevent over 300,000 premature deaths between now and 2050, the report reads. The net benefits of the standard equate to $1.43 trillion, from 2020 to 2050, according to the report.

The benefits of the CES would drastically lower U.S. carbon emissions to 80% of our 2005 level by 2030 and net-zero by 2040, the report reads. This would change the course of climate change worldwide, including here in Syracuse. While self-awareness of our carbon footprint is a selfless and necessary action to take part in, if a CES is enacted, individuals will not need to change their daily lives to see improvements in CO2 emissions.

Students, faculty, and staff are responsible for holding SU, the local government and each other accountable. It is now or never. We need to proceed collectively, call our representatives, organize marches on campus that promote decarbonizing the electric grid and advocate for the Clean Electricity Standard. Our campus would benefit, the landscape of central New York would prosper and the snowy winters we know and love would remain. 

Currently, our fate is in the hands of politicians who have, thus far, failed to enact any bill sizable enough to transform the U.S. to carbon-neutrality. This should not be political; it is a matter of life and death, and I’m calling on SU students to stand up and demand change.

Andrew Lieberman is a citizenship and civic engagement and political science dual major. His column appears biweekly. He can be reached at aslieber@syr.edu.

Published on August 30, 2021 at 11:25 pm