Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) operated by Battelle for the U.S. Department of Energy, is a premier research and development laboratory based in Richland, Washington, with a strong background in atmospheric science and global climate change research.
PNNL has been at the forefront of global energy/economic modeling for nearly two decades, since Jae Edmonds' ground-breaking integrated assessment model was first developed in 1983. This model has been expanded over the years into a set of integrated analysis tools, the Global Change Assessment Modeling System (GCAM), which successfully links a realistic carbon cycle model with a global representation of energy systems and needs and an economic model to evaluate the technological options over the long term for meeting our energy needs and the relative contributions of those options to future atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. This set of analytical tools and related analyses have set the agenda for the United States' response to the climate change problem. PNNL's CGAM was the primary analytical tool for the United States' analysis of the 1992 UN Framework Convention as well as the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. PNNL continues to push the modeling frontier with its integrated systems approach.
PNNL is a leader in:
- expanding the scientific understanding of climate change phenomena through participation in the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program, regional climate modeling and impact assessment, and atmospheric chemistry and dynamics.
- evaluating alternative climate change technology strategies for our corporate and government clients to help them manage long-term risk.
- developing and deploying advanced technologies for carbon management, such as terrestrial sequestration, CO2 capture and disposal, and long term geologic sequestration.
- developing and deploying advanced energy technologies, including fuel cells, biomass, and hydrogen systems that make it possible to move the world toward a zero-net carbon energy system that supports the continued use of a diversity of fuels.
