Carbonomics: The green engine of economic recovery

Clean tech has a major role to play in the upcoming economic recovery. Leveraging our Carbonomics cost curve, we estimate that clean tech has the potential to drive US$1-2 tn pa of green infrastructure investments and create 15-20 mn jobs worldwide, through public-private collaboration (e.g., “The Green Deal”). Renewable power will become the largest area of spending in the energy industry in 2021, on our estimates, surpassing upstream oil & gas for the first time in history, driven by bifurcating cost of capital (up to 20% for long-term oil projects, down to 3-5% for renewables). Rising capital markets engagement in …

A Pipe Dream or Climate Solution?

Averting the worst effects of climate change will require us to transition away from fossil fuels and replace them with renewable resources like wind and solar energy. Some argue that biogas (methane produced from organic sources such as food scraps or animal waste) and synthetic gas (methane or hydrogen created using electrical power) are also “renewable” alternatives that could someday replace fossil gas in America’s pipelines. While biogas and synthetic gas can be a part of the climate solution toolbox, they come with a host of limitations, such as resource availability, cost, and human health and environmental impacts. Most significantly, …

The Greenest Stimulus Is One that Delivers Rapid Economic Recovery

As governments plot their responses to the COVID crisis, it’s difficult to find an influential voice who is not calling for economic stimulus legislation that simultaneously aims to achieve climate change goals. As International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva put it: “We are about to deploy enormous, gigantic fiscal stimulus and we can do it in a way that we tackle both crises at the same time.”

After all, governments will spend trillions of dollars to put people back to work. This could be a once-in-a-generation opportunity to shape massive government expenditures in a lower-carbon direction.

Europe appears poised to …

On energy sufficiency and the need for new policies to combat growing inequities in the residential energy sector

The decreasing cost and increasing availability of new technologies capable of improving household energy efficiency, generating and storing renewable energy, and decarbonizing major end use appliances have begun to significantly transform many residential communities across the U.S. Despite these positive developments however, the degree to which disadvantaged communities (DACs) have been able to participate in and benefit from these transformations remains far from equal. Using historical time series data at the zipcode level within Los Angeles County, we document the scale and extent to which DACs continue to be left behind. These data show per-capita levels of electricity and natural …

Why the United States Should Remain Engaged on Nuclear Power: Climate Change and Air Pollution

Nuclear energy has shown much promise and faced considerable challenges since its origins in the mid-20th century. While the United States drove the early charge for safe nuclear power around the globe, its leadership has waned in recent decades. US reactors now under construction—following no orders for such plants in the United States for several decades—have gone well over planned budgets and schedules. And while the United States was once the leading international supplier of reactors, other countries have since stepped forward to fill that role.

Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, as part of its wider work on …

Working in Partnership for a Resilient and Innovative Energy Future

Improving energy, water, and waste efficiency is critical for our buildings, homes, and manufacturing plants. These are the places we live, learn, and work. Enabling American businesses and families to reduce their energy costs without compromising occupant comfort and needs is an enormous opportunity. Enhancing the resilience of our buildings to withstand extreme events and disasters, while at the same time driving great efficiency, is a benefit for occupants and owners alike. Energy-efficient, well-managed facilities provide a pathway for saving money and strengthening our communities.

Through the Better Buildings Initiative, market leaders are working in partnership with the U.S. Department …

Green Stimulus: Life, But Not As We Know It

The Covid-19 pandemic appears on track to trigger an economic contraction more severe than the 2008-09 financial crisis, perhaps even worse than the Great Depression. Yet amid great uncertainty, there are known knowns: postlockdown life will be different from what came before; the specter of climate change will remain; and governments will do their best to revive floundering economies through stimulus policies. But which specific ideas can most effectively drive clean growth? BloombergNEF examines the best opportunities across the power, transport, buildings and industrial sectors.…

Developing a Comprehensive Benefit-Cost Analysis Framework: the Rhode Island Experience

Rhode Island, like many other states, is facing the new realities of quickly changing customer demands, advancing technologies and new public policy priorities that are challenging existing regulatory processes. The Rhode Island PUC took steps to meet this challenge by developing a new regulatory tool. Building on the cost-effectiveness approach used for energy efficiency, Rhode Island developed a comprehensive framework to enable comparison of the benefits and costs across different types of utility expenditures and investments on behalf of customers. Download this report to find out how the framework can be adopted and implemented in your state.

In this report:…

Impact Report 2019

Tesla has released its second ‘Impact Report’ and in this new version, the automaker has significantly expanded the range of the report to include some fascinating data, including deep dives into efficiency, lifetime footprint, and more.

The automaker released the first edition of its impact report last year with the goal of “measuring the impact their products and operations have on the environment and our communities.”

For its 2019 report, Tesla greatly expanded it with a lot more data and interesting information about its operations and the lifetime footprint of its products.…

Rewiring The U.S. For Economic Recovery

New research shows that plummeting renewable energy and storage prices mean the United States can reliably reach 90 percent clean electricity by 2035 at no extra cost to consumers, supporting 530,000 new jobs per year and cutting economy-wide emissions 27%. This companion report outlines technology-neutral policy recommendations for Congress, federal departments and agencies, national laboratories, governors and state legislators, public utility commissions, and wholesale electricity markets to reach 90 percent clean electricity by 2035 in the United States.…