The American Water Works Association (AWWA) will host a webinar that will focus on identifying and prioritizing the barriers and challenges needed to achieve industry decarbonization by 2050.

“Climate change puts the water industry at risk and makes water supply less predictable, directly impacting the water industry’s ability to meet its primary mission to provide water safely, securely, and on demand to its customers,” AWWA reports. “Treating and delivering water requires an enormous amount of carbon-based energy. Therefore, the water industry is a major contributor of carbon and part of our climate problem. That the water industry is decentralized, risk averse, and thinks of net zero as a long-term and abstract goal, hinders that adoption of solution to achieve.”

Cristina Ahmadpour, president and managing director (Americas), Isle Utilities, will moderate the session, to feature insights from:

• Clifford Chan, general manager, East Bay Municipal Utility District
• Gregg Semler, founder and CEO, InPipe Energy
• George Hawkins, founder and CEO, Moonshot Mission
• Jane Atkinson Gajwani, director, Office of Energy and Resource Recovery Programs / agency chief decarbonization officer, New York City, Department of Environmental Protection
• Lindsey Stuvick, sustainable resources officer, Moulton Niguel Water District

The session will cover the challenges that utilities faced in reducing their carbon footprint, and how to navigate these barriers. The discussion will also examine how utilities engage the industry to create a realistic and actionable road map to affect change by leveraging opportunities.

Access more information and register for the webinar, “Net Zero 2035: The Challenge Starts Now,” sponsored and presented by InPipe Energy, scheduled for October 1.