Persistent Fossil Fuel Growth Threatens the Paris Agreement and Planetary Health

Amidst declarations of planetary emergency and reports that the window for limiting climate change to 1.5 °C is rapidly closing, global average temperatures and fossil fuel emissions continue to rise. Global fossil CO2 emissions have grown three years consecutively: +1.5% in 2017, +2.1% in 2018, and our slower central projection of +0.6% in 2019 (range of –0.32% to 1.5%) to 37 ± 2 Gt CO2 (Friedlingstein et al 2019 Earth Syst. Sci. Data accepted), after a temporary growth hiatus from 2014 to 2016. Economic indicators and trends in global natural gas and oil use suggest a further rise in emissions …

An Assessment of the GREEN Act: Implications for Emissions and Clean Energy Deployment

The Growing Renewable Energy and Efficiency Now (GREEN) Act, a discussion draft distributed to Congress on November 19th, proposes to extend several tax credits for clean energy deployment and expand several others. Given the current political climate and numerous competing priorities facing Congress, a tax credit extension package may possibly be the best chance in this Congress to enact measures that can accelerate clean energy deployment and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This independent analysis quantifies the combined impact of most major provisions of the proposal on both technology deployment and GHG emissions, through 2030.…

Global Carbon Budget 2019

Accurate assessment of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and their redistribution among the atmosphere, ocean, and terrestrial biosphere – the “global carbon budget” – is important to better understand the global carbon cycle, support the development of climate policies, and project future climate change. Here we describe data sets and methodology to quantify the five major components of the global carbon budget and their uncertainties. Fossil CO2 emissions (EFF) are based on energy statistics and cement production data, while emissions from land use change (ELUC), mainly deforestation, are based on land use and land use change data and bookkeeping models. …

People’s Summary of Roadmap to Nowhere: The Myth of Powering the Nation with Renewable Energy

People’s Summary of “Roadmap to Nowhere: The Myth of Powering the Nation with Renewable Energy”

by Timothy Maloney and Mike Conley
Prepared by Leonard Rodberg, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Urban Studies,
Queens College/CUNY…

The Adverse Impact of Section 201 Tariffs: Lost Jobs, Lost Deployment and Lost Investments

Lost Jobs, Lost Deployment and Lost Investments
This report explores the impact of Section 201 tariffs on the U.S. solar industry. As a result of the tariffs:

62,000 fewer jobs from 2017 through 2021
10.5 gigawatts (GW) of lost solar deployment (enough to power 1.8 million homes and avoid 26 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions
$19 billion in lost investment…

USING RENEWABLES FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLE DEMAND: A REVIEW OF UTILITY PROGRAM DESIGNS & IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES

This paper explores the range of approaches and emerging program designs currently used in the United States to match EV loads and renewable energy, with an emphasis on methods that more closely link the timing and location of the EV demand with renewable energy supply.…

Which emerging market is the most attractive for clean energy investment?

A cool down in China and several other major economies depressed 2018 clean energy investment across emerging nations and kept overall deployment rates flat year-on-year. Meanwhile, coal-fired generation surged in the 104 markets BloombergNEF assessed for its annual Climatescope survey. Both suggest that despite considerable recent progress, developing countries’ power sector CO2 emissions are rising rapidly.

There were silver linings in 2018, of course. For the second year in a row, emerging nations built more clean than fossil-fueled power-generating capacity. Construction of new coal-fired power plants fell to its lowest level in a decade. Excluding China, clean energy installations grew …

U.S. Public Views on Climate and Energy

Majorities of Americans say the federal government is doing too little for key aspects of the environment, from protecting water or air quality to reducing the effects of climate change. And most believe the United States should focus on developing alternative sources of energy over expansion of fossil fuel sources, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.

A majority of U.S. adults say they are taking at least some specific action in their daily lives to protect the environment, though Democrats and Republicans remain at ideological odds over the causes of climate change and the effects of policies to …

Fiscal Year 2019 Environmental Justice Progress Report

The FY 2019 Report describes how the Agency is working to meet the needs of vulnerable communities to address disproportionate environmental impacts, health disparities and economic distress, including the following examples:

Selected 50 new small EJ grants recipients in FY 2019 to receive $1.5 million in grant funding, with half of the grants going to communities located in or impacting Opportunity Zones.

Awarded $64.6 million to 149 communities with Brownfields grants, which will provide funding to assess, clean up and redevelop underutilized properties. 108 of the communities identified sites or targeted areas within Opportunity Zones. Awarded $46.19 million to support …

Clean Energy Standards: State and Federal Policy Options and Considerations

While market dynamics and current state and federal policies have led to recent growth in clean energy generation—such as the growth in renewable generation driven in part by state renewable electricity portfolio standards and federal tax incentives—projections for the power sector indicate that, absent significant new policies to promote clean generation, the pace of transition to cleaner power generation, needed to meet our climate change challenge, will be insufficient.

Given the imperative of transitioning to cleaner electricity, policymakers have redoubled their attention to a number of significant, climate-focused proposals, including the idea of a clean energy standard (CES) that prioritizes …