Climate Change Mitigation Strategies: Impacts and Obstacles in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

In this deep-dive paper, we document some of the knock-on effects of what may appear to be “green” strategies within one country. We also examine the provision of fossil fuel subsidies and compare them with the availability of “green” finance. The point is that these negative outcomes are not inevitable; nor are they necessary “collateral damage” in otherwise positive shifts to green energy use. We argue that avoiding these impacts requires changes in strategy not only for lower-income economies, but even more urgently in rich countries and at the global level. Such change will incorporate climate justice in the transition …

Meeting the Moment: How President Biden Can Align the Federal Fossil Fuel Program to Deliver on Climate and Put People Over Profits

President Biden campaigned and won on the most ambitious climate agenda in our nation’s history. But over a year into President Biden’s first term, the U.S. federal fossil fuel program remains inconsistent with his stated national climate pollution target and the goals of the Paris Agreement. If the federal fossil fuel program continues on its current trajectory, it will be impossible for the Biden administration to meet its climate obligations. After all, the science is resoundingly clear: no new fossil fuel infrastructure can be developed anywhere globally, if we hope to stand a chance of limiting global warming to 1.5°C.…

Utility Executive Survey: How Leaders are Tackling Decarbonization, Resilience, and Equity

Intensifying hurricanes, floods, and wildfires. Ambitious clean energy commitments. Building and transportation electrification. Justice 40 and a laser focus on energy affordability.

Leaders must steer their organizations through a minefield of changes and disruptions. How can they prioritize investments and initiatives as they look to deliver clean, just, and predictable energy in the years to come?

Our latest survey answers pressing questions from nearly 200 utility executives—uncovering pain points and opportunities for utilities to get ahead.…

From Renewable Fuels to Clean Fuels: The RFS After 2022, and Other Ways the Biden Administration Can Drive the Transition to Cleaner Transportation Fuels

Curbing emissions from the transportation sector is one of the most important steps the United States can take to cut greenhouse gas pollution by 50-52% by 2030. In fact, transportation emissions account for nearly a third of all such emissions in the U.S., in addition to being a major public health and environmental justice issue. The Biden Administration has the important opportunity to use existing authorities to promote cleaner transportation fuels.

Currently, the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) is the dominant federal policy that governs transportation fuels. It requires fuel providers (i.e. oil companies) to incorporate bio-based renewable fuels, like ethanol, …

How the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard Could Use Garbage to Pay for Electric Vehicles

The U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) is a key federal program shifting the nation’s transportation fuel mix towards lower-carbon alternatives. A 2014 update to the standard included certain types of renewable electricity as qualifying fuels, supporting vehicle electrification within the RFS for the first time. This study investigates the potential under existing regulatory authority to expand deployment of low-carbon waste-to-electricity pathways, yielding revenue that could be used to subsidize electric vehicle (EV) sales or to support other RFS-aligned climate and transport-sector goals. We find that by accounting for drivetrain efficiency in credit allocation and creating a centralized entity to accrue …

An “All-In” Pathway to 2030: Transportation Sector Emissions Reduction Potential

A rapid and low-carbon transformation of the transportation sector in the United States holds the key to delivering on multiple goals: enhancing economic mobility, improving health, expanding environmental justice and equity, reducing global oil dependence in a time of deep concerns about energy security, and delivering on ambitious and necessary climate goals. The United States has committed to an ambitious climate target of slashing emissions in half by 2030—setting the country on a path toward keeping global climate goals within reach.

The transportation sector—now the biggest single source of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.—is one of the key linchpins …

Assessing The Viability Of Hydrogen Proposals: Considerations For State Utility Regulators And Policymakers

Natural gas and electric utilities across the United States are increasingly pursuing pilot projects to blend hydrogen with natural gas for various end-uses, including as a heating fuel in buildings or for power generation. However research shows these projects would increase consumer costs, exacerbate air pollution, and cause safety risks while minimally reducing greenhouse gases. By comparison, electrification is a proven, low-cost alternative that poses no safety or health risks and can rapidly cut building emissions. And in the power sector, increasing renewable electricity is a much more efficient clean energy pathway. State utility regulators and policymakers should require a …

Surveying the BECCS Landscape

This report is a systematic review of the literature to understand the key opportunities and challenges associated with bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), a broad set of systems that integrate the use of energy derived from biomass with the capture and long-term storage of carbon. BECCS has received much attention due to its potential to remove greenhouse gas emissions from the atmosphere; however, there are uncertainties regarding BECCS pathways that may have adverse economic, social, and environmental impacts. While BECCS can potentially decarbonize numerous sectors, including agriculture, forestry, electricity, waste, and industry, BECCS deployment in practice has been …

Carbon Trading for New York City’s Building Sector

NYU researchers released the first study to rigorously assess the predicted impacts of Local Law 97 of 2019 (LL97), the City of New York’s signature climate law. The law caps the amount of greenhouse gases (GHGs) that large buildings can release, starting in 2024.

The study assessed the impact that adding an emissions trading program would have on environmental justice communities and proposes ways to increase investment and emissions reductions in those areas. The study offers two options for trading programs designed to improve outcomes under LL97. Both options would benefit the City as a whole, and environmental justice communities …

Vestiges of Environmental Racism: Closing California’s Last Two Municipal Waste Incinerators

There are two municipal solid waste incinerators still operating in California: the Southeast Resource Recovery Facility (SERRF) in Long Beach and the Covanta Stanislaus incinerator in Stanislaus County. The problems with these incinerators in California are emblematic of the larger problems with incinerators across the country. To start, these incinerators pollute the environment and harm public health by converting waste into harmful air emissions and toxic ash. Financially-strapped local governments and residents have also been forced to pay millions of dollars to subsidize the expensive maintenance and operations of these aging incinerators. Further, SERRF and Covanta Stanislaus emit a large …