With the paralysis of the climate treaty process and American legislation capping greenhouse gases, a direct
focus on energy innovation as a climate, economic and security strategy is gaining some traction in policy circles.
The need for a direct
push on energy innovation is particularly acute given scant evidence, in Cancún treaty talks or elsewhere, that countries where nearly all of the growth in such emissions is coming in the next few decades are willing to restrain this flow for the sake of limiting long - term climate change.
On Dec. 15, I'll be running a panel at another significant meeting
on energy innovation in Washington, where a substantial focus will be on building the intellectual infrastructure required to produce an energy menu that works for the long haul.
There are lots of signs of ferment and meaningful debate on paths forward, ranging from this meeting to the recent session in
Washington on energy innovation involving institutions and individuals ranging from liberals to libertarians.
«I appreciate the need to derive savings and balance our budget, but that can not come at the expense of our
efforts on energy innovation,» said Senator Lisa Murkowski (R — AK), chair of the energy panel.
This year's Gates Letter — the annual mission statement of Bill and Melinda Gates — is shaped as a call to high school students to center their studies and
careers on energy innovation and other ways to boost prospects for more than a billion people whose energy poverty locks them into an unhealthy and time - sapping scrabble for existence.
One of his most useful
papers on energy innovation was published in the journal Innovations in 2006: «The Energy Innovation Imperative: Addressing Oil Dependence, Climate Change, and Other 21st Century Energy Challenges.»
As the «Six Americas» surveys run by the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication have shown, there's plenty of common
ground on energy innovation and incentives for efficiency, so it's possible to have a constructive conversation on global warming science and at least some solutions across a range of ideologies.
On that front, I highly recommend you read an analysis of the potential to make
progress on energy innovation through international cooperation — and competition — published today by the Council on Foreign Relations.
He would have to push for far more engagement and investment by the United States in developing countries — the main source of such emissions in coming decades — even though many lawmakers and citizens perceive these countries more as economic foes than potential
allies on energy innovation.
I saw an interview with Bill Gates on CNBC this
morning on energy innovation and Gates's take on his conversation with Trump vis - a-vis energy innovation.
Under the circumstances, it's hard to see how any other approach — say, one centered around spending billions of
dollars on energy innovation, or a big grassroots approach — would have been any more successful.
Since global emissions are just a function of energy infrastructure (mostly), I don't know why the COP aren't already focusing
on energy innovation instead of emissions...
[1:05 p.m. Updated Google, of course, has invested significantly in renewable energy technologies, and has promoted a big
push on energy innovation.
I'm glad to see Wei and Monson forging ahead on climate and energy analysis and action despite the deep dysfunction in Washington, which shows signs of hobbling any approach, whether focused on traditional tools like tax policies and pollution regulation or a direct push
on energy innovation.