UCSF Admin — Follow Through with Strong Decarbonization Plans

According to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change service, 2024 is set to be yet another hottest year ever recorded. The same group of researchers also concluded that Earth’s average global temperature surpassed 1.5 degrees Celsius this year, hitting the first “warning” ceiling set forward at the UN Paris Accords. 

The consequences of this heating are already tangible to many. This year in the U.S. alone, we’ve seen historic hurricanes like Helene and Milton shock the east coast, while major wildfires continue to devastate communities here in California. 

It is clear that we are approaching a new stage in the global climate emergency. The leading cause of this emergency continues to be rising greenhouse gas emissions, largely from energy production.

UC San Francisco, along with all other UC campuses, was directed by UC President Drake to conduct a study exploring the best pathways to carbon free operation by 2045. UCSF’s study, released in November, shows that it is not only possible for UCSF to achieve a 94% emissions reduction by 2040, but also that significant progress can be made with a 53% reduction by as soon as 2035. We congratulate the administration for the study’s detailed examination of possibilities, and we urge them to adhere to the steps laid out in the study.

UCSF’s plan demonstrates strategic and achievable steps to end total reliance on fossil fuels for all UCSF facilities that will still be in operation in the foreseeable future. These include campuses and patient care facilities at Parnassus, Mission Bay, Mt. Zion, Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland, and Fresno. 

The study makes use of already existing technology to propose creative alternatives to methane gas for energy and heating, including often overlooked techniques like geothermal and sewage heat recovery.

Although other UC campuses have put forward proposals for more rapid timelines, we recognize the unique challenges of decarbonizing UCSF’s numerous medical facilities, and believe the report presents a detailed and ambitious plan given those challenges. The plan also has a hefty price tag of $1.5 to 1.8 billion in total. 

However, given UCSF’s annual revenue stream exceeds $10 billion, we know that the administration can and must prioritize implementation of this decades-long project within its budget. Compared to the costs of climate inaction — which go even beyond those calculated as the Social Cost of Carbon in the report — the price of rapid decarbonization is small.

The study’s authors agree that climate change is linked to increased risks to human health from a multitude of sources. As a national leader in healthcare research, UCSF has an obligation to prioritize global health through its operations. 

We commend the Decarbonization Roadmap team for their work, and we call on Chancellor Sam Hawgood to use the report as a guide to ambitiously pursue clean-energy campuses and medical centers at UCSF. He should commit to pursuing its primary target of eliminating 91% of emissions by 2045 and its interim targets including 53% by 2035.

In the wake of the recent election, our national leadership seems unlikely to uphold our commitments to climate action — despite the need for that action being higher than it has ever been. It is now even more essential that the UC — and UCSF particularly — lead the way in eliminating emissions and halting climate change.