The Role of Turbulence in Climate Mitigation and Sustainable Engineering

• Turbulence-related inefficiencies contribute significantly to greenhouse gas emissions. • Turbulence-informed design could reduce emissions by up to 6 GtCO?-eq per year ( 10% of global emissions). • Improving turbulence prediction and control offers a scalable pathway to enhance energy efficiency across many technologies. Most fluid flows encountered in engineering and nature are turbulent. Turbulence governs processes such as drag, mixing, and heat transfer, which determine the efficiency of many technologies that dominate global energy use, including transport systems, energy conversion devices, and industrial fluid networks. The energy losses associated with these turbulent processes ultimately translate into greenhouse gas emissions. Using 2019 emissions as a reference and estimates reported in the turbulence and energy literature, we show that turbulence-informed design and operation could reduce emissions by up to about 6 GtCO 2 -eq per year, close to 10% of current global emissions. In this sense, turbulence is not only a long-standing scientific challenge but also a key physical mechanism behind a large fraction of the energy losses that drive climate change.