The Future of Clean Hydrogen in the United States: Views from Industry, Market Innovators, and Investors

The Future of Clean Hydrogen in the United States: View from Industry, Market Innovators, and Investors is the first report in the series From Kilograms to Gigatons: Pathways for Hydrogen Market Formation in the United States that aims to develop a comprehensive analysis of policy opportunities for further hydrogen development in the United States. Based on over seventy interviews with leaders across the hydrogen value chain, this report details the current state of the hydrogen market in the United States.…

Ohio River Valley Hydrogen and CCS Hub Market Formation

On July 12th, 2021, the Labor Energy Partnership held a virtual workshop on hydrogen and carbon capture and storage (CCS) in the Ohio River Valley. The workshop, one in a series on decarbonizing the economy, convened leaders from government, labor, and industry for a robust discussion on the value of hydrogen and CCS market formation to the local economy and global energy transition and what is needed from government, labor, and industry to facilitate its development.…

Carbon Pricing and Regulations Compared: An Economic Explainer

There is a broad consensus that the world faces a serious threat from climate change, and that reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, eventually to net-zero, is essential to mitigating that threat. There is less consensus, however, on how to go about it.

The two leading options for reducing greenhouse gas emissions (or carbon emissions, for short) are carbon pricing and command-and-control regulations. The former relies on markets to achieve emission reductions while the latter relies on regulations, such as performance standards and technology mandates. Carbon pricing and command-and-control regulations both remain in contention, either as alternatives or as complementary policies. …

Blueprint 2030: An All-In Climate Strategy for Faster, More Durable Emissions Reductions​

The recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) highlights the dire consequences of climate change and the dramatic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions urgently required to limit global warming to 1.5 °C. President Biden’s commitment to reduce U.S. emissions 50–52 percent below 2005 levels by 2030 represents major progress compared with previous U.S. goals. But considering the new IPCC report, it is vital to recognize that the 50–52 percent goal is only a down-payment that should be accelerated as soon as possible so that the U.S. and other industrial nations achieve net-zero climate emissions well before 2050. Indeed, climate security …

How Can North America Achieve Net Zero Carbon? A Siemens Energy view

Humanity faces what is likely the biggest challenge in history. Without rapid action to curb carbon emissions, there will be environmental impacts of huge concern. The most important will include reduced snow and polar ice, leading to rising sea levels and increased coastal flooding and erosion. There will also be extreme weather events, with more precipitation leading to flooding in some places—while there is severe drought in others.

Meanwhile, more extreme heat waves will also bring a greater risk of forest fires. Secondary impacts from these changes include loss of species because of their inability to adapt to changing habitats, …

Electricity Grid Resilience

The nation’s grid delivers electricity that is essential for our modern life.

However, risks such as extreme weather, cyberattacks, and electromagnetic events like solar storms can damage our electrical infrastructure (like power lines) and communications systems. The resulting power outages can threaten the nation’s economic and national security.

With examples drawn from several GAO reports, we describe these risks and highlight key opportunities to improve federal efforts in this area.…

Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement

This report has been prepared in response to the requests from COP 21 and CMA 21 for the secretariat to prepare a synthesis report on NDCs submitted by Parties. In view of the postponement from 2020 to 2021 of the United Nations Climate Change Conference to be held in Glasgow and the impact of the COVID–19 pandemic on the preparation of NDCs, the secretariat informed Parties that it would publish two editions of the NDC synthesis report: an initial version by 28 February 2021 and the full version in advance of …

Benchmarking Scenario Comparisons: Key Indicators for the Clean Energy Transition

Long-term energy scenarios have become an essential tool for policy makers to guide the clean energy transition. Energy scenarios produced are varied, leading to an abundance of insights and technology combinations. Comparison studies have emerged to help understand the convergences and divergences between various scenarios, providing trade-offs for decision makers and identifying key insights for policy makers.

This report from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) synthesizes experts’ views on how to improve scenario comparison studies to gain insights for the clean energy transition that were presented and discussed during the workshop …

Closing the Gap: The Impact of G20 Climate Commitments on Limiting Global Temperature Rise to 1.5°C

Under the Paris Agreement, Parties agreed to limit global temperature rise to well below 2°C, and pursue efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C. While some progress has been made in strengthening national climate targets and policies, current nationally national for reducing emissions are still insufficient to meet the Paris Agreement’s temperature goal. Strengthened 2030 and mid-century commitments are urgently needed. The G20—a group collectively accounting for around 75 percent of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, 80 percent of global GDP, and two-thirds of global population—has an outsized role to play in addressing climate change.

This paper presents a set of …

Emissions Projections under Alternative Climate Policy Proposals

In this issue brief, RFF researchers estimate the projected energy-related carbon dioxide emissions under different climate policy proposals.…