An unprecedented push for low-carbon energy innovation
In May 2016, ahead of the 7th Clean Energy Ministerial and the inaugural Mission Innovation Ministerial, Near Zero gathered perspectives from experts in Mission Innovation countries to explore opportunities for further low-carbon energy R&D. Mission Innovation’s unprecedented cooperative effort could raise governmental spending on low-carbon energy R&D to an all-time high and provide a stream of sustained innovations.
Governmental spending on low-carbon R&D
To ensure that low-carbon energy sources continue growing rapidly with the aim of cutting energy-sector greenhouse gas emissions to near-zero, governments around the world have been focused on two major efforts: a “push” from innovation that helps make low-carbon energy cheaper and more versatile, and a “pull” from policies and market design that encourage the commercial scale-up of low-carbon energy.
In November 2015, a diverse set of 20 nations signed Mission Innovation’s joint statement that pledged: “Each participating country will seek to double its governmental and/or state-directed clean energy research and development investment over five years.”
Near Zero invited experts worldwide to submit examples of R&D efforts that could help achieve Mission Innovation’s goals. Forty-five experts participated, and this report presents a selection from their responses, focused on four areas: solar power, greening the grid, decarbonizing gas, and energy efficiency. Full responses are presented in a supplementary report.
To support nations around the world—in particular members of the Clean Energy Ministerial and Mission Innovation—in discussions of future energy R&D budgets, more interaction is needed between experts in academia, industry, government, and civil society. Structured expert elicitation and discussion can help governments identify the best opportunities and most pressing challenges for future energy research.
a Near Zero white paper
Mason Inman *, Daniel L. Sanchez *†, Michael D. Mastrandrea *†, Steven J. Davis *§, Karen Fries *
* Near Zero
† Carnegie Institution for Science, Department of Global Ecology
§ University of California, Irvine, Department of Earth System Science
Expert participants
45 experts participated in the elicitation for this report:
Alfredo Bermudez
Universidad Autónoma de Baja California Sur, Mexico
Almo Pradana
World Resources Institute (WRI), Indonesia
Amitav Rath
Policy Research International, Canada
Anand Patwardhan
University of Maryland, United States
Anshu Bharadwaj
Center for the Study of Science, Technology & Policy, India
Antonina Ivanova Boncheva
Universidad Autónoma de Baja California Sur, Mexico
Asgeir Tomasgard
Norwegian University of Science & Technology (NTNU), Norway
Birte Holst Jørgensen
Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Denmark
David Popp
Syracuse University, United States
David Victor
University of California, San Diego (UCSD), United States
Emilio Lèbre La Rovere
Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Brazil
Frank Jotzo
Australian National University, Australia
Gerardo Hiriart Le Bert
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Mexico
Helena Chum
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), United States
Ian Bryden
University of the Highlands and Islands, United Kingdom
Jacob Østergaard
Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Denmark
Jeffrey Logan
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), United States
Jiahua Pan
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China
Jim Watson
University of Sussex, United Kingdom
Jinyue Yan
Mälardalen University and Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Sweden
José María Valenzuela
World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Mexico
Joyashree Roy
Jadavpur University, India
Kaoru Yamaguchi
Institute of Energy Economics, Japan (IEEJ), Japan
Karin Ericsson
Lund University, Sweden
Kathryn Janda
University of Oxford, United Kingdom
Keigo Akimoto
Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth, Japan
Lars J. Nilsson
Lund University, Sweden
Lena Neij
Lund University, Sweden
Lennart Söder
Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Sweden
Mark Diesendorf
University of New South Wales (UNSW), Australia
Mikiko Kainuma
National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES), Japan
Nilay Shah
Imperial College London, United Kingdom
Oswaldo Lucon
University of São Paulo, Brazil
Peter Cook
University of Melbourne, Australia
Peter Newman
Curtin University, Australia
Poul Erik Morthorst
Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Denmark
Rahul Walawalkar
Customized Energy Solutions, India
Rodrigo Palma
University of Chile, Chile
Sergio Trindade
Independent Consultant, United States
Shunsuke Managi
Kyushu University, Japan
Søren Linderoth
Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Denmark
Taishi Sugiyama
Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry (CRIEPI), Japan
Waleed Salman
Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, United Arab Emirates
Youngah Park
Korean Institute for Science and Technology Evaluation and Planning (KISTEP), Republic of Korea
Yuyun Ismawati
BaliFokus, Indonesia