Fletcher School postdoctoral scholar Zdenka Myslikova maps out the case for private-public partnerships to accelerate the energy innovation process in the United States, citing examples from the United Kingdom and Chile.
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Should we be optimistic about our clean energy innovation efforts against climate change? Our new research shows that global government energy RD&D investments between 2000-2018 are decarbonizing. Nuclear has held steady, fossil fuels have decreased, and clean energy has increased. China and India have now joined the United States and Japan in the ranks of the top four countries overall. Energy RD&D by state-owned enterprises remain skewed toward fossil fuels and nuclear.
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Since the onset of the COVID crisis, economic stimulus has been re-framed as roadmaps to ‘green recovery’ or ‘building back better’. The question is whether these ideas are useful for India, especially when it is facing a longer road out of the pandemic than previously thought. Evidence supports that they are relevant, for three reasons.
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In celebration of the 51st Earth Day, Amy Myers Jaffe discusses the US’ history with nature and its impact on the Biden Administration’s $2 trillion infrastructure plan.
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When leaders of the G20 met this weekend, they appeared to focus heavily on the major challenge to the global economy: a second wave of the global pandemic and the possibility of breakthrough vaccine. But always in the wings of any global economic discussion is the longer-term challenge of tackling the climate crisis. As G-20 countries consider additional economic stimulus to tackle both crises, our research shows that energy efficiency of buildings (BEE) is a comprehensive solution that can both create new, green jobs while providing a major step towards decarbonizing economies. Both the United States and China have targeted BEE in past stimulus spending. With the G-20 countries pledging to enhance their commitments under the Paris Agreement, including BEE would offer countries multiple benefits.
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The website “Restoring American Leadership” which chronicles the transition plans of U.S. President Elect Joe Biden includes a vision specifically on climate change. It calls on the United States to go further than just rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement to build “a more resilient, sustainable economy – one that will put the United States on an irreversible path to achieve net-zero emission, economy-wide, by no later than 2050.” The plan references multiple ways to accomplish net zero goals including promoting climate smart agriculture, building greener and more resilient public transportation infrastructure, and decarbonizing the power sector as well as creating additional union jobs via a major program upgrading existing buildings.
The transition planning, as described, misses the opportunity to put U.S. actions into a global perspective. We offer some suggestions for the new administration, based on the Climate Policy Lab’s research, on how to marry national domestic climate policy with international challenges and opportunities.
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It’s been over ten years since the 2009 financial crisis economic stimulus packages targeted clean energy companies and today’s headlines highlight the payoff. Clean energy companies outperformed the S&P 500 in 2019 and looks poised to payout even more to investors in 2020. Tesla received a $465 million federal loan during the U.S. 2009 stimulus to design electric vehicles and begin manufacturing and its market capitalization surpassed that of ExxonMobil earlier this year. Tesla is not the exception to the rule. A comprehensive study of the US Department of Energy’s SBIR grant program found that the awards led to positive impacts on patenting and revenue innovative companies.
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