Global Clean Energy Innovation

Twenty-three countries plus the EU pledged in 2015 to double their investments in clean energy RD&D by 2020. Only one met that goal. Undeterred, they announced a new set of pledges in 2021. Two years later, most are still woefully underinvesting in clean energy RD&D.

The drivers that accelerated every transformative innovation since the industrial revolution won’t work for green tech.

When it comes to the most important step Korea can take to address global climate change―boosting clean energy R&D―Korea, like most developed nations, is lagging.

Trying to force the green transition with government regulations, subsidies, and exhortation will not work. The economic reality is that clean energy technologies must reach price/performance parity with dirty energy (P3).

The harsh reality is that until clean energy is as cheap and performs as well as dirty energy, the world will not adopt it at anything like the needed scale. So, governments must focus on developing clean energy sources at price and performance parity with dirty fuels — “P3.”

Watch now for the release event for the important new report and panel discussion on why P3 must be the new lens governments that governments must use to decide which clean energy technologies to support and how to support them.

Watch thought leaders from ITIF, IIT-Delhi School of Public Policy, and the Climate Policy Lab at The Fletcher School, Tufts University share their visions for a successful COP for innovation, building off the September 12th forum published in Nature Energy.

In September, ministers will gather in Pittsburgh to consider how their governments should respond to the energy and climate innovation imperative. Building on Glasgow, the meeting should strive to fill critical gaps in areas such as capital-intensive demonstration projects and innovation-friendly trade in carbon-intensive goods.

ITIF's Center for Clean Energy Innovation hosted a discussion of the health of the global clean energy innovation system, why continuous investments in the system matter, and what a healthy system should look like.

At last year’s Glasgow Climate Conference, countries pledged to increase public and private finance, set common targets under the Breakthrough Agenda, and accelerate electric vehicle deployment, among many other goals.