The Carbon Mitigation Initiative (CMI) is an independent academic research program that brings together scientists, engineers and policy experts to design safe, effective and affordable carbon mitigation strategies. Sponsored by bp and administered by the High Meadows Environmental Institute, CMI is Princeton university’s largest and most long-term industry partnership. Since its inception, CMI has been committed to the dissemination of its research findings in peer-reviewed academic literature so they may benefit the larger scientific community, government, industry and the general public.
Participants
CMI, now in its twenty-third year, has left an immeasurable impact on how society deals with the climate problem. In 2022, over 50 researchers and students worked under the leadership of fourteen principal investigators to find ways to mitigate crises and help policymakers develop equitable solutions to environmental problems.
Current Programming
Despite the COVID pandemic of the last two years, CMI researchers have maintained unabated research progress. One research initiative, which continues to gain traction globally and from which new projects were borne, The Net-Zero America project, has had outsized impact on policymakers and scientists in the US and abroad. Evolving from Net-Zero America, the REPEAT project allows policymakers and the public to view the impacts of proposed climate and energy policies before they are voted into law.
Another focus of CMI research in 2021 was carbon capture and storage (CCS), an important component in the transition to net-zero. Indeed, most models that show the economy achieving net-zero by 2050 rely heavily on this technology. CCS can be deployed by using hubs that carry CO2 from various capture sites via pipeline networks to a centralized injection site. One 2021 CMI highlight posits that CCS will be limited by large-scale geologic limitations on the rate at which CO2 can be injected. Another group of CMI researchers built a computer simulation tool to predict how geologic conditions can impact larger-scale geological carbon storage. Addressing the disconnect between CCS ambitions and constraints is crucial to successful CCS investment and policy decisions.
Other initiatives in the CMI research realm described in more detail in the following section include:
- Determining the impact of aerosol particles on global radiative forcing
- Consequences of hydrogen leakage on atmospheric methane
- Impacts of wetlands on methane emissions
- Predicting biodiversity responses to climate change
- Carbon capture through mineral-carbon interactions in water
- Using mathematical models to predict future climate
- Impacts of climate and fire on the fate of Amazonian forests
- Predicting reduced oxygen levels in the world’s oceans
- Understanding the frequency of tropical cyclones
- Using calcium compounds for carbon capture
Ongoing Research Focus
- REPEAT Project Assesses U.S. Climate Progress
- Overcoming Challenges Facing the Execution of Net-Zero Energy Ambitions
- IRA Impacts on Prospective Economics of Clean Hydrogen and Liquid Fuel
- India’s Deccan Traps Appear to Have Limited Capacity for Carbon Storage
- Pore Structure and Permeability of Alkali-Activated Metakaolin Cements with Reduced CO2 Emissions
- Projecting the Expansion and Impacts of Ocean Oxygen Minimum Zones
- Understanding Drivers of Hurricane Activity
- Critical Hydrogen Emission Intensity for Methane Mitigation
- The CMI Wetland Project
- Land Conversion to Store Carbon: The Costs and Benefits to Biodiversity
- Understanding How Economic Incentives Influence Land-Use Decisions
- How the Orography-Aware Land Model LM4.2 Improves our Understanding of Potentially Abrupt Changes in the Land Terrestrial Carbon Cycle
- Ongoing Research at the Pacala Lab
Sponsor
To learn about CMI’s sponsor, check our Sponsor page.
Career Opportunities
For all open positions within CMI, check our Employment Opportunities page.
Contact Us
You may contact us by using the form in our Contact Us page.