Last month, IPCC AR6 Working Group II released its latest report, which covers Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. The report reveals in stark terms that climatic impacts are interacting and multiplying across sectors and regions, creating risks that compound each other (IPCC AR6 Summary 18). One key takeaway from the report that needs more attention is that many natural systems have already been pushed to their adaptive breaking points, including many warm water coral reefs, coastal wetlands, rainforests, arctic, and mountain ecosystems (IPCC AR6 Summary 28). These harsh realities raise concerns about the longevity of existing natural carbon sinks and has important policy implications.
Africa contributes less than 4 percent of global emissions but has already experienced the impacts of climate change, including droughts, floods, heatwaves, and sea-level rise. Nevertheless, Africa remains at the center of the fight against future climate change. With the youngest population in the world and rapid urbanization and population growth rates, the African population is estimated to reach 2.5 billion by 2050.
Rising tensions between the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and Russia over Russian troop buildups on the Ukraine border have raised the specter of an energy crisis in Europe. This new geopolitical context is likely to influence Europe’s calculus going forward, with a high likelihood that a lasting distaste for heavy reliance on Russian gas will give even further impetus to plans to rapidly diversify to cleaner energy sources such as offshore wind and hydrogen. That begs the question: Have Russia’s recent actions hurt its own chances to be a major participant in Europe’s energy transition?
In September 2021, at the United Nations General Assembly, China’s President Xi announced that China would no longer support overseas coal-fired power plants. One of the primary beneficiaries of Chinese public finance in coal has been Pakistan’s energy sector. According to the IEA, between 2015 and 2018, Pakistan’s coal-based generation capacity increased from 148 GWh to 15,930 GWh. Such a ramp up in energy generation capacity was sorely needed. Pakistan faced crippling blackouts, which undermined the investment climate and suppressed industrial output, not to mention energy access concerns
A new Tufts CREATE Solutions report reviews evidence for Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF), one of the largest efforts to implement agroecology at scale. The Government of Andhra Pradesh, India plans to expand ZBNF to millions of farmers in the state over the next several years. The review finds ZBNF generally increases farmers’ income, but critical gaps remain concerning climate change outcomes.
Climate Policy Lab postdoctoral scholar Zdenka Myslikova discusses the conversations at COP26 surrounding funding climate solutions and clean energy technology.
CPL Fellow Seth Owusu-Mante discusses South Africa’s Juspat Energy Transition Partnership, and how it can create a win-win outcome for the South African economy and global efforts to mitigate the dire consequences of the climate crisis.
As scientific data on methane leakage from US oil and gas production and transport systems has improved, the urgency of methane mitigation policy has increased. Higher estimates for methane released in oil and gas US operations continue to be verified via ground-based facility scale measurement combined with satellite and other aerial methods, suggesting that volumes of well over 2 to 3 percent of gross US natural gas production need to be detected and remedied.
Hengrui Liu discusses China’s newly released “Working Guidance For Carbon Dioxide Peaking and Carbon Neutrality in Full and Faithful Implementation of the New Development Philosophy” ( The “1” Policy).
Amy Myers Jaffe discusses CPL’s newest policy brief about how a U.S. loan guarantee program can spur experimentation and innovation by helping firms avoid the “valley of death” in the innovation process.
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.
The International Energy Agency’s recent Clean Energy Innovation assessment is that more than 50% of the technologies needed for the attainment of net zero greenhouse gas emissions targets by 2050 are not yet commercialized and need rapid acceleration. Considering the global climate crisis, research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) spending on clean energy needs to be higher and more effective. Bipartisan support for spending on clean energy innovation has been a fixture of the US Congress over the past decade. Now as Congress debates the path forward for this investment, more attention should be given to how to improve outcomes from new appropriations.
As Congress continues to debate infrastructure legislation, it should endorse a proven model for addressing the complex political landscape in the United States: Green banks. The Biden administration is proposing the establishment of a $27 billion “Clean Energy & Sustainability Accelerator’ which, in effect, would be a federal green bank. A new report from Climate Policy Lab argues that a federal green bank can be “one of the best tools in the country’s toolbox for ensuring a just energy transition” by targeting communities being left behind
As the White House and Congressional leaders spar on the details of infrastructure spending legislation, House Democrats have pushed for tax credits for clean energy and energy efficiency programs.
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.
The pressure to enact ambitious climate policy is higher than ever, as the IPCC clarifies the urgency of the challenge, and key global summits draw closer. In addition to emissions reduction targets and investment in green infrastructure, political leadership in the European Union and the United States are considering a “carbon border tax.” This is a duty on imported goods, determined based on the carbon (or greenhouse) footprint of the process used to manufacture the good in the country of origin. These are attempts to mimic the “climate club” approach of the Montreal Protocol, but need to pay much closer attention to the details of that agreement. In this blog, Fletcher School junior fellow, Tarun Gopalakrishnan explains why.
President Joe Biden’s first budget release provides an initial glimpse of the Biden Administration’s priorities for technological innovation in low-carbon energy. Importantly, the fiscal year (FY) 2022 request would sharply increase US government investments in research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) in energy efficiency and renewables.
Rishikesh Bhandary opines that in the run up to COP26 in Glasgow, countries should consider not just meeting the $100 billion climate finance goal but also paying attention to the delivery channels that will be used to supply the funding.
Last fall, President Xi Jinping surprised the world with his announcement that China would achieve climate neutrality by 2060. This bold step and accelerates an already long list of major Chinese national efforts that not only will help China transform its domestic economy, but also put China in a leadership position globally with respect to having a mid-century target.
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.
