UC Davis students participate in 2023 climate action demonstration
October 2024: We initiated and co-coordinated a Special Edition of the Storer Lectureship on Climate Denial, Disinformation and Doublespeak by Big Oil. The in-person venue was filled to capacity and there were almost 600 people online, including attendees across California and beyond. You can watch the video here.
February 2024: Following our initial meeting with Chancellor Gary May in December 2021, urging him to initiate the decarbonization of UC Davis’s campuses, and many months of work from the Campus Advisory Committee on Sustainability (CACS), UC Davis released the Fossil Fuel-Free Pathway Plan (FFFPP). The FFFPP calls for a 75% reduction of fossil fuel use on UCD campuses by 2030 and a 95% reduction by 2040. Prior to publicized release, we met with Chancellor May and urged him to make the campus community aware of the completion of the FFFPP and discussed other ways UCD can show visible leadership by example and make our climate ambition visible (e.g., by electrifying our fleet).
Two town halls were held in November 2022; a Zoom recording from one of the meetings can be found here, along with other information about the Fossil Fuel-Free Pathway Plan.
In October 2022, the statewide UC established a Pathways to a Fossil Free UC taskforce to address the necessary challenge of decarbonizing our campuses.
In March 2022, Stanford University opened a 63-megawatt solar power plant and 200-megawatt hour battery storage system, making the university plus-energy. More info is here.
Following our group’s 12/15/21 meeting with Chancellor May, Provost Croughan and others, the Chancellor informed us on 1/4/22 that he has directed staff to prepare a plan by the end of 2022 for ending UCD fossil fuel use. See followup articles here (UCD press release), here (Fossil Free UCD op ed), and here (Davis Enterprise article).
UC Green New Deal Coalition Meeting, Tuesday, Nov 16 2021, 7-8 pm PST. Join us for our monthly meeting to meet other environmental activists, learn about the UC GND, and make yourself heard in a Town Hall discussion. New members are extremely welcome – there will be a 15 minute new member orientation ahead of the main meeting. Email Steve Wheeler at smwheeler@ucdavis.edu for the Zoom link.
The City of Davis is nearing the final stages of preparing its Climate Action and Adaptation Plan. Some believe the current draft could be much stronger, for example explicitly prohibiting fossil-fuel use in new buildings, requiring that gas furnaces and hot water heaters be replaced with electric heat pumps whenever in need of replacement, and setting a date such as 2035 after which use of fossil fuel motor vehicles would be prohibited in city limits. Staff will still accept comments on draft actions. To find out more, go to https://www.cityofdavis.org/sustainability/2020-climate-action-and-adaptation-plan-caap
The UC Berkeley administration has reportedly committed $1 million to study campus electrification (which would greatly reduce fossil fuel use for heating and cooling).
2021/11/05 – Fossil Free UCD campaign featured in the Davis Enterprise
Despite very limited publicity, the Fossil Free UCD gained 433 signatures from the UC Davis community in the first 24 hours after its 11/1/21 launch. Good work everybody! Let’s keep it up! Please circulate the petition to all your lists and networks.
A Fossil Free UCD 