Accelerating Country-led Air Quality Reporting to Achieve Clean Air

There is no single, authoritative, comprehensive, regularly updated, database that provides recent national air pollution levels around the world — not even for fine particulate matter, known as PM2.5, the deadliest and one of the most commonly tracked air pollutants. Access to basic, timely, recurring global air quality data is essential to identify hotspots for action, provide supporting resources, and track progress on pollution reduction across space and time. The invisibility in data, in turn, makes it harder to convince stakeholders to act, and to hold decision-makers accountable for policies, practices, regulations, laws and investments that impact air quality and …

2024 Congressional Policy Priorities to Enhance American Manufacturing Competitiveness

Published in September 2024, this fact sheet outlines the RTC’s strategy to strengthen American energy security, create high-quality jobs, advance technology innovation, and modernize manufacturing facilities. It details three main priorities:

– Creating or expanding cross-cutting, technology-inclusive tax incentives and grants,
– Extending or expanding incentives and markets to provide long-term support for renewable thermal technologies, and
– Filling gaps in technology, infrastructure, and workforce development through Department of Energy programs.

Drafted with input from the RTC’s diverse membership of industrial leaders and solution providers, these priorities offer policymakers a roadmap for enhancing U.S. manufacturing competitiveness while addressing the critical …

National Zero-Emission Freight Corridor Strategy

The United States has committed to decarbonizing freight transportation by advancing the deployment of commercial zero-emission medium- and heavy-duty vehicles (ZEMHDVs) and infrastructure. It is pursuing this goal by leveraging historic federal and private investments, policies, and partnerships. Through the U.S. National Blueprint for Transportation Decarbonization and the Global Memorandum of Understanding for ZeroEmission Medium- and Heavy-Duty Vehicles, the United States has committed to identifying viable pathways and implementation actions that promote at least 30% ZEMHDV sales by 2030, with a goal of 100% by 2040. These actions, along with the investments laid out in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and …

SMRs for Mining: Opportunities and Challenges for Small Modular Reactors

This publication on small modular reactors (SMRs) for mining is the first of a series of NEA case studies that assess the opportunities and challenges for SMRs to support decarbonisation of hard-to-abate industrial sectors. The mining sector is particularly challenging to decarbonise. However, mining is essential for the clean energy transition, which depends on various critical minerals such as rare earth elements, niobium, lithium, cobalt and copper for energy infrastructure and technologies for generation, storage and transmission. These materials are commonly located in remote areas, underscoring the imperative to decarbonise off-grid mining.

This NEA case study on SMRs for mining …

Comprehensive Guide to Financing the Zero-Emission Trucking Transition in India

Decarbonizing India’s trucking sector is crucial for the nation to achieve its carbon-neutrality goal, enhance energy security, and improve public health. Recognizing the benefits of zero-emission trucks (ZETs), government and industry stakeholders have begun to set the groundwork for their deployment. For fleets, manufacturers, and charging infrastructure providers to transition to ZETs, access to financing is essential. Developing financial strategies that lower risks and make funding more accessible will help bridge the cost gap between diesel trucks and ZETs, accelerating their adoption across India.

While the technology, risks, and economic viability of diesel trucks are well understood by banks and …

Techno-Economic Analysis of Geothermal Combined with Direct and Biomass-Based Carbon Dioxide Removal for High-Temperature Hydrothermal Systems

Limiting global temperature rise to between 1.5 and 2 °C will likely require widespread deployment of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) to offset sectors with hard-to-abate emissions. As financial resources for decarbonization are finite, strategic deployment of CDR technologies is essential for maximizing atmospheric CO2 reductions. Carbon capture and sequestration (CCS), using either direct air capture (DACCS) or bioenergy (BECCS) technologies has a particular synergy with geothermal electricity generation. This is because expensive geothermal infrastructure can be leveraged to transport dissolved CO2 for storage in subsurface reservoirs.

Here, the researchers present a techno-economic comparison of renewable electricity generation coupled with either …

Critical Mineral Supply Chains

“Critical Mineral Supply Chains” is the second white paper of the Terranaut Minologues, a series by OurEnergyPolicy with generous underwriting from The Earthshot Foundation aimed at addressing opportunities in securing access to critical minerals for the energy transition. This paper addresses the barriers to critical mineral supply chain security and explores opportunities and strategies that can be used to support this area of international importance.…

Hydrogen for Light-Duty Vehicles

Manufacturers, governments, and researchers have spent decades developing hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) in pursuit of clean vehicles that operate similarly to internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs)—that is, promising long ranges and fast fueling times. However, battery electric vehicles (BEVs) have improved dramatically over this time, closing the gap on these metrics and taking off in sales and infrastructure deployment. Even so, a desire to keep all options open has kept interest in FCEVs alive. For example, California is dedicating substantial funding to FCEVs despite very low sales and a booming BEV market.

This fact sheet is part of …

Forging a Greener Future: The Imperative of Decarbonizing Steel Production

Steel is foundational in contemporary infrastructure and is responsible for about 7-9% of global CO2 emissions, per reports from the International Energy Agency (IEA). Within the United States, annual steel production has reached 88 million tons. The ubiquitous nature of steel in our society creates a multifaceted issue, explored in depth in “Decarbonizing the iron and steel industry: A systematic review of sociotechnical systems, technological innovations, and policy options,” published in 2022. This publication emphasizes that plans to decarbonize steel must account for environmental, economic, and social dimensions, recognizing that the steel sector supports millions of jobs globally.

The journey …

A Review of the Safety Record of CO2 Pipelines in the United States

Totaling over 5,000 miles, carbon dioxide (CO2) pipelines have operated in various regions of the United States for decades, largely between natural sources of CO2 and enhanced oil recovery fields. While estimates for the number of miles needed vary, deploying carbon capture technologies at power and industrial facilities to aid in the decarbonization of the US economy will necessitate an expansion of the nation’s CO2 pipeline network.

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), a federal agency under the US Department of Transportation, is responsible for developing and enforcing regulations related to the safe operation of pipeline infrastructure in …