Full Title: Innovation Policy for Climate Change: A Report to the Nation
Author(s): Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes Arizona State University and Clean Air Task Force
Publisher(s): Clean Air Task Force
Publication Date: September 1, 2009
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
The world is not on a path to reduced greenhouse gas emissions. The suite of commercially viable climate-friendly energy technology needs to be expanded rapidly, which in turn requires appropriate government policies. The current high cost of delivering low-carbon energy means that energy-climate technologies must be treated by governments as a public good, akin to national defense, public health and disaster protection. Doing so can open up new avenues for energy-climate technology policy such as those that allowed the U.S. to lead the world in innovation for much of the 20th century. This report draws on the lessons of past U.S. government policy for technological innovation, as well as three workshops held in March and April of 2009. The workshops brought experts on innovation and government policy together with experts in three technologies–solar photovoltaics (PVs), post-combustion capture of carbon dioxide (CO2) from power plants, and direct removal of CO2 from the atmosphere (air capture)–not in search of consensus, but to probe and illustrate the complexities and opportunities of energy-climate innovation policy.