Brazil’s Green Iron Opportunity

As global demand for lower-emissions products rises, Brazil is uniquely positioned to thrive in the renewable hydrogen and green iron and steel transformation, thanks to its natural resources. This Insight Brief explores Brazil’s cost-competitive advantage in producing green iron for steelmaking via hydrogen-based direct reduction (H2-DRI), the leading large-scale, commercially viable technology for eliminating all iron production emissions. With renewable hydrogen constituting up to 50% of the final cost of steel made from H2-DRI, Brazil’s abundant and grid-connected renewable energy resources enable globally cost-competitive production, with costs up to 65% cheaper than other steelmaking countries.

Brazil’s emerging landscape of renewable …

Building Markets to Scale Carbon Management Solutions

As global energy demand grows and the urgency of climate action intensifies, Carbon Management Solutions (CMS) are increasingly recognized as essential tools for helping balance economic resilience, energy security, and emissions reduction. The International Energy Forum’s latest report, Building Markets to Scale Carbon Management Solutions, explores how comprehensive policy frameworks and commercial market development can unlock the full potential of CMS, from Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS) to clean hydrogen.…

Underground Gas Storage in Natural Gas Infrastructure: East Coast Insights

The East Coast has a larger total number of facilities than the Gulf Coast, but only about
half the amount of working gas capacity due to the greater number of salt dome
caverns found in the Gulf. Like the Gulf Coast, UGS in the East Coast can support the
storage of low-carbon fuels including hydrogen and may provide a crucial long-term
storage solution for renewable energy produced in the region from intermittent sources
like wind. This region has challenges to expanding the role of UGS in the future,
including regulatory hurdles, barriers to infrastructure expansions, and the proximity of
UGS …

Global Trade in the Energy Transition

Global trade in the energy transition: Principles for clean energy supply chains & carbon pricing, the ETC explores how strategic trade and industrial policy can accelerate — rather than hinder — the global energy transition. However, growing concerns over concentrated supply chains and perceptions that carbon border adjustments are protectionist could significantly delay global progress. The ETC briefing proposes an optimal way forward on two crucial trade-related issues: Developing domestic supply chains: six principles for policy. Carbon pricing and carbon border adjustment mechanisms (CBAMs): gaining global agreement to policies which can drive decarbonisation of “hard to abate” sectors. …

Unlocking First-of-a-Kind Projects through Clean Industrial Hubs

From August 2022 to December 2024, Mission Possible Partnership and RMI, with support from the Bezos Earth Fund, accelerated the development of clean industrial hubs in California and Texas, partnering with 18 first-of-a-kind clean industrial projects to grow regional economies, strengthen local workforces, and protect energy security while reducing industry’s environmental impacts.

Participating in a clean industrial hub can significantly improve project success: 50 percent of the 18 projects we supported reached a final investment decision (FID), compared with 20 percent globally. Once built, these projects will mobilize $34 billion of public and private investment and reduce emissions by half …

Trading Off Regional and Overall Energy System Design Flexibility in the Net-Zero Transition

The transition to net-zero emissions in Europe is determined by a patchwork of country-level and European Union-wide policy, creating coordination challenges in an interconnected system. Here we use an optimization model to map out near-optimal energy system designs for 2050, focusing on the planning flexibility of individual regions while maintaining overall system robustness against different weather years, cost assumptions and land-use limitations. Our results reveal extensive flexibility at a regional level, where only few technologies (solar around the Adriatic and wind on the British Isles and in Germany) cannot be substituted. National policymakers can influence renewable energy export and hydrogen …

The Potential for Alternative Fuels in Building Decarbonization

Electrification of current fossil fuel end uses and a low-carbon electricity supply constitute the most proven approach to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, particularly for buildings. Alternative fuels (a category of fuels that can be used instead of fossil fuels, including biofuels, hydrogen, and synthetic fuels) may provide a path to reducing emissions in hard-to-decarbonize sectors such as long-distance transportation, high-temperature industrial processes, load-following electricity generation (generation that can adjust power output to match fluctuating electricity demands), and certain thermal demands in buildings, such as space and water heating in cold climates. In this report, the authors survey potential supply …

State of Play: The Chemical and Refining Sectors

A 35% increase in demand for chemicals is expected globally by 2050. This is an exciting time for the American industrial base, with many opportunities to simultaneously drive down the cost of innovative technologies and to scale and deploy energy innovation. Several private companies have announced commitments to invest in hydrogen, advanced nuclear and carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) technologies. Reducing the cost of these technologies will enhance America’s position as a leader in energy and strengthen our manufacturing base, helping us overtake China as the largest exporter in the chemical and refining sectors. Investing in these innovative American …

Exploring Techno-Economic Landscapes of Abatement Options for Hard-to-Electrify Sectors

Approximately 20% of global CO2 emissions originate from sectors often labeled as hard-to-abate, which are challenging or impossible to electrify. Alternative abatement options are necessary for these sectors but face critical bottlenecks, particularly concerning the availability and cost of low-emission hydrogen, carbon capture and storage, and non-fossil CO2 for synthetic fuels or carbon-dioxide removal. In this study, the authors conduct a broad techno-economic analysis, mapping abatement options and hard-to-electrify sectors while addressing associated technological uncertainties. The findings reveal a diverse mitigation landscape that can be categorized into three tiers, based on the abatement cost and technologies required. By requiring long-term …

Marginal Wells 101: What Are They, Where Are They, and Why Do We Need to Assess Them?

Over half a million oil and gas wells in the United States produced 15 barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) or less daily in 2023 (according to RMI analysis using Enverus and Rextag). These low-producing wells, called marginal wells, comprise three-quarters of all US oil- and gas-producing wells. At most, these wells extract less than 630 gallons a day — enough to fill just eight bathtubs. But most of these wells produce far less than that. Almost half of marginal wells are submarginal wells or “micro producers” that produce one BOE or less per day — not enough to fill one …