Steve Davis (scientist)

• Earth System Science

Steven J. Davis
Steven J. Davis at 2019 AGU Fall Meeting
Born	Florida
Nationality	American
Academic background
Alma mater	University of Florida University of Virginia Stanford University
Institutions	Stanford University

Steven J. Davis is an American earth system scientist in the Department of Earth System Science of the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability at Stanford University. He is a highly cited researcher ^[1] and leads the Stanford Sustainable Solutions Lab. ^[2]

Education and legal career

Davis received his undergraduate education at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, his Juris Doctor at the University of Virginia School of Law, and his doctorate from Stanford University. ^[3] From 2001-2004, Davis worked as a corporate lawyer at Gray, Cary, Ware & Freidenrich, LLC in Palo Alto, California advising venture-backed start-ups in Silicon Valley (now part of DLA Piper). He received his PhD in Geological and Environmental Sciences in 2008 from Stanford University. ^[4] He then worked as a post-doctoral researcher with Ken Caldeira at the Carnegie Institution for Science's Department of Global Ecology from 2008 to 2012. ^[5]

Research

Davis researches embedded emissions of carbon dioxide and air pollution in international trade, ^{[6] [7] [8]} energy systems, ^[9] carbon lock-in, ^{[10] [11]} the quantities and causes of greenhouse gas emissions, ^{[12] [13]} and the interactions of agriculture and the global carbon cycle. ^{[14] [15]}

Awards

In 2015, Davis and his co-authors were awarded the Cozzarelli Prize by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences for a paper they published on the role of China's international trade and air pollution in the United States. ^[16] In 2018, Davis received the James B. Macelwane Medal of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) for his contributions in developing a science that links global climate change and society, and was simultaneously elected an AGU Fellow.

Selected publications by topic

Energy

• Davis, Steven J. et al (2018). "Net-zero emissions energy systems", Science, 360. 1419.
• Davis, Steven J. and Socolow, Robert. (2014). "Commitment accounting of CO2 emissions", Environmental Research Letters, 9. 084018.
• Davis, Steven J., Matthews, D. and Caldeira, Ken. (2010). "Future CO2 emissions and climate change from existing energy infrastructure", Science, 329. 1330-1335.
• Bergero, Candelaria et al. (2023). "Pathways to net-zero emissions aviation", Nature Sustainability, 6. 404-414.
• Tong, Dan et al. (2019). "Committed emissions from existing energy infrastructure jeopardize 1.5C climate target", Nature, 572. 373-377.

Trade

• Davis, Steven J. and Caldeira, Ken. (2010). "Consumption-based accounting of CO2 emissions", Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107 (12). 5687-5693.
• Hong, Chaopeng et al. (2022). "Land-use emissions embodied in international trade", Science, 376. 597-603.
• Meng, Jing et al. (2018). "The rise of South-South trade and its effect on global CO2 emissions", Nature Communications, 9. 1871.
• Zhang, Qiang et al. (2017). "Transboundary health impacts of transported global air pollution and international trade", Nature, 543. 705-709.
• Lin, Jintai et al. (2014). "China's international trade and air pollution in the United States", Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111 (5). 1736-1741.
• Davis, Steven J., Peters, Glen P. and Caldeira, Ken. (2011). "The supply chain of CO2 emissions", Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108 (45). 18554-18559.
• Guan, Dabo et al. (2020). "Global supply chain efforts of COVID-19 control methods", Nature Human Behaviour, 4. 577-587.

Food, water, and land use

• Burney, Jennifer, Davis, Steven J. and Lobell, David. (2010). "Greenhouse gas mitigation by agricultural intensification", Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107 (26). 12052-12057.
• Hong, Chaopeng et al. (2021). "Global and regional drivers of land-use emissions in 1961–2017", Nature, 589. 554-561.
• Davis, Steven J. et al. (2023). "Food without agriculture", Nature Sustainability, 7. 90-95.
• Qin, Yue et al. (2019). "Flexibility and intensity of global water use", Nature Sustainability, 2, 515-523.
• Hong, Chaopeng et al. (2020). "Impacts of ozone and climate change on yields of perennial crops in California", Nature Food, 1. 166-172.

Carbon management

• Smith, Pete et al. (2015). "Biophysical and economic limits to negative CO2 emissions", Nature Climate Change, 6. 42-50.
• DeAngelo, Julianne et al. (2022). "Economic and biophysical limits to seaweed farming for climate change mitigation", Nature Plants, 9. 45-57.
• Roijen, Elizabeth et al. (2025). "Building materials could store more than 16 billion tonnes of CO2 annually", Science, 387. 176-182.
• Xi, Fengming et al. (2016). "Substantial global carbon uptake by cement carbonation", Nature Geoscience, 9. 880-883.

Impacts and adaptation

• Sanders, Brett et al. (2023) "Large and inequitable flood risks in Los Angeles, California", Nature Sustainability, 6. 47-57.
• Wang, Daoping et al. (2020) "Economic footprint of California wildfires in 2018", Nature Sustainability, 4. 252-260.
• Sloat, Lindsey et al. (2020) "Climate adaptation by crop migration", Nature Communications, 11. 1243.
• Qin, Yue et al. (2020) "Agricultural risks of changing snowmelt", Nature Climate Change, 10. 459-465.
• Xie, Wei et al. (2018) "Decreases in global beer supply due to extreme drought and heat", Nature Plants, 4. 964-973.
• Mazdiyasni, Omid et al. (2017) "Increasing probability of mortality during Indian heat waves", Science Advances, 3. e1700066.

Other Affiliations

Davis co-founded two non-profit organizations related to climate change, the Climate Conservancy, a group that pioneered product-level carbon accounting, ^[17] and Near Zero, an organization that "...provides credible, impartial, and actionable assessment with the goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions to near zero". ^[18]

Davis was a Contributing Author to Working Group III (Mitigation) of the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report, and the Mitigation Chapter Lead of the 5th National Climate Assessment published in 2023. He also works with the Carbon accounting startup Watershed ^[19] and currently serves on the Technical Council of the Science Based Targets initiative. ^[20]

References

1. "Publons profile"
2. "Stanford Sustainable Solutions Lab"
3. "Steve Davis Curriculum Vitae". stanford.edu. 5 August 2024. Retrieved 20 August 2024.
4. "Steve Davis Curriculum Vitae". Retrieved 20 August 2024.
5. "Caldeira Lab". Retrieved 27 November 2012.
6. Broder, John. "Counting 'Outsourced' Greenhouse Gas Emissions", New York Times , 8 March 2010. Retrieved 20 April 2012.
7. "Trading Down", The Economist , 8 March 2010. Retrieved 20 April 2012.
8. "China Exports Pollution to U.S., Study Finds", New York Times , 20 January 2014. Retrieved 10 June 2016.
9. Walsh, Bryan. "Energy: Reducing CO2 Emissions Will Be Harder Than You Think", TIME Magazine , 9 September 2010. Retrieved 20 April 2012.
10. Main, Douglas. "We've Been Counting Carbon Dioxide Emissions All Wrong", TIME Magazine , 26 August 2014. Retrieved 10 June 2016.
11. Revkin, Andy. "Accounting for the Expanding Carbon Shadow From Coal-Burning Plants", Dot Earth , 28 August 2014. Retrieved 10 June 2016.
12. Netborn, Deborah. "Why an economic recession could be good for the planet", Los Angeles Times , 22 July 2015. Retrieved 10 June 2016.
13. Buckley, Chris. "China's Carbon Dioxide Emissions May Have Been Overstated by More Than 10%", New York Times , 19 August 2015. Retrieved 10 June 2016.
14. Harris, Richard. "For Developing Nations, Exports Boost CO2 Emissions", NPR , 8 March 2010. Retrieved 20 April 2012.
15. Coghlan, Andy. "Intensive farming 'massively slowed' global warming", New Scientist , 14 June 2010. Retrieved 20 April 2012.
16. Cozzarelli Prize
17. O'Brien, Chris. "Beer and Climate Change", Beer Activist blog , 1 July 2008. Retrieved 20 April 2012.
18. Near Zero. Retrieved 2 July 2018.
19. Retrieved 20 August 2024.
20. Technical Board. Retrieved 20 August 2024.