Just Transitions in the Oil and Gas Sector: Considerations for Addressing Impacts on Workers and Communities in Middle-Income Countries

About half of the world’s oil and gas is produced by “middle-income” developing countries. These countries could face a significant drop in government revenue due to the global shift away from fossil fuels. The shift away from oil and gas will also contribute to job displacement and economic insecurity for workers and communities supported by the industry. This paper advises policymakers to pursue a just transition away from the oil and gas sector while minimizing harm to workers and communities that have depended on that industry. It focuses on the implications of phasing down oil and gas production rather than …

2023 Moving World Report

Representing a multi-trillion dollar annual market, mobility cuts across all facets of commerce and industry.

From electric and autonomous vehicles, to EVTOLs, hypersonic travel, space exploration, and many more groundbreaking ideas, unlocking the next wave of opportunities will require disruptive innovation in multiple dimensions of technology, infrastructure, supply chain and human resources. A great number of challenges lie ahead – we like to think of them as opportunities.

The UP.Partners Moving World Report is an extensive analysis of the macro and micro trends in mobility. Through detailed market research and expert insights, we identify the main themes shaping mobility in …

Advanced Nuclear Reactors: Policies to Help America Lead

Global demand for clean firm power and heat is rapidly growing—driven not only by urgency for climate action, but also as countries prioritize energy security and seek alternatives to Russian energy sources. Advanced small modular reactors (SMRs) are uniquely suited to meet this growing demand, given their potential scalability and flexibility in use cases. Advanced reactor technologies were originally conceived through research done at US national laboratories, providing US developers unique access to data and resources from this research.…

The Benefit and Urgency of Planned Offshore Transmission

This report first lays out the urgent case for proactively and holistically planning transmission solutions for the nation’s increasingly ambitious offshore wind goals. Section II reviews existing studies that document the benefits of proactive planning and quantifies the economic, environmental, and reliability benefits offered by carefully planned offshore wind transmission solutions. Section III summarizes barriers that currently prevent the realization of these benefits. Section IV recommends specific steps that states, grid operators, the federal administration and key federal agencies, and industry stakeholders need to take to create a pathway for no-regrets grid solutions that allows achieving near- and long-term offshore …

Reimagining Resource Planning

Planning the electricity system has never been more important — or more complex. Utilities are simultaneously facing unprecedented weather events, retiring aging resources, and considering a wider array of resource and grid improvement options to ensure electricity is reliable and affordable. On top of these factors, utilities and regulators are implementing changes to existing processes to achieve new policy objectives, such as prioritizing energy equity and reducing emissions.

Resource planning is a crucial opportunity for utilities, regulators, and stakeholders to shape the future electricity system. Integrated resource plans (IRPs) typically indicate the direction of the generation mix and help utilities …

Charting a Pathway to Maryland’s Equitable Clean Energy Future

Maryland has cast itself among the nation’s climate leaders through its passage of the Climate Solutions Now Act (CSNA) and a greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction goal of 60 percent by 2031. Equitably electrifying the state’s building sector is a pillar to achieving the state’s climate goals and of CSNA.

This report begins by assessing four main sets of housing- and energy-related policies, programs, and opportunities that currently exist in Maryland, and identifies barriers to implementation and openings for improved collaboration. It then moves to explain an alternative scenario, where the current disparate programs are streamlined through a one-stop-shop whole-home retrofit …

V2X Implementation Guide

Electric school buses (ESBs) equipped with Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X), or bidirectional charging capability, can serve as “mobile power units” to provide backup power to emergency shelters and other critical facilities, enhancing much-needed infrastructure resilience and aiding in emergency planning, preparedness, and response efforts. Given that underserved communities often are hit the hardest by extreme weather events, such as hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, or wildfires, ESBs as mobile power units could be particularly useful in enhancing resilience in these areas.

This implementation guide (guide) describes the potential to use V2X-enabled ESBs as alternative emergency backup power sources during power outages. The core of …

The Future of Geothermal in Texas

After a year-long multi-disciplinary, cross-collaborative effort, researchers at five Texas universities, the University Lands Office, and the International Energy Agency published “The Future of Geothermal in Texas: The Coming Century of Growth & Prosperity in the Lone Star State.” The landmark study evaluates the size and potential scale of geothermal – the naturally occurring heat energy in the Earth’s subsurface – as an abundant clean energy resource in the State of Texas, as well as its potential to scale globally over the coming decades. Most importantly, the Report provides a scientific basis for informed decision making as entities begin to …

State of Green Business 2023

“Stay the course” may be the key message coming out of the convulsing, confounding year that was 2022. For all that those 12 months threw at us — a still-raging pandemic, a global economic downturn, major supply-chain chokepoints, political upheavals, climate exacerbated natural disasters and a global energy crisis spurred by Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine — there’s no turning back for sustainability professionals.

In short, the risks are growing, but so are the rewards — to professionals, their organizations and, ultimately, to the planet and all who live here.

In the 16th annual edition of the State of Green …

Powering Toward 100 Percent Clean Power by 2035

This paper from Evergreen and NRDC outlines an updated roadmap toward 80 percent clean power by 2030 and 100 percent clean electricity by 2035 now that the IRA is law. With two years remaining in his first term, President Biden must continue to pursue his agenda using standards, investments, and justice to tackle the climate crisis and build a thriving, just, and inclusive clean energy economy.…