Colin Cunliff

The United States needs an integrated national strategy to address the twin challenges of bolstering its manufacturing sector and averting climate change. Timely federal RD&D and deployment policies targeted to specific manufacturing industries could create comparative advantage, expanding domestic investment and employment.

The United States should launch a “moon shot” in clean energy that mobilizes its unmatched innovative capabilities to combat climate change and capture global markets. The fiscal year 2022 budget is a critical opportunity for Congress to advance U.S. energy innovation.

Congress and the administration should seize on the momentum created by the passage of the Energy Act of 2020 and provide a multi-billion-dollar increase to raise the ambition for energy innovation programs at DOE in the FY 2022 budget.

AI promises to help cities save money, address infrastructure needs, and reduce emissions. But to unlock these benefits and help smart cities reach their full potential, the federal government has an important role to play in funding RD&D and facilitating cooperation.

ITIF argued innovation is critical to combat climate change, making three core points: First, greater federal investment in innovation is essential to address climate change and boost U.S. competitiveness in clean energy. Second, prioritize funding to RD&D and deployment programs around 10 critical decarbonization needs. Third, diversify the innovation portfolio to maximize the effectiveness of federal investments.

A landmark report released today by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) issues a clarion call for more clean energy innovation, finding that “deep decarbonization is technically feasible, but proactive innovation is essential.”

The U.S. government should triple its annual investment in energy innovation over the next five years to speed clean energy transitions around the world and build advanced-energy industries at home.

America has successfully launched national innovation missions time and again, but it has not launched a mission to counter the gravest threat of our time: climate change.

Alarmists claim the tech sector’s carbon footprint is mushrooming out of control. But they wildly misrepresent the facts. Not only is the ICT sector making significant progress in decarbonizing, but ICT is also a powerful technology that enables other sectors to become more energy efficient.

In response to a request for input from the House Science, Space, and Technology committee, ITIF recommended that any stimulus bill in response to the COVID-19 crisis include provisions to stimulate manufacturing, technology entrepreneurship, and clean energy innovation, including large-scale demonstration projects in fields such as industrial decarbonization.

Lawmakers should make energy innovation a national imperative, and at least double U.S. investment in clean energy RD&D by 2025.

Unless Congress takes specific action to reverse the administration’s plans, the president’s budget request will become binding on federal energy RD&D programs, eliminating vital activities.

ITIF Senior Policy Analyst Colin Cunliff spoke on a an expert panel discussing underappreciated opportunities for bringing clean manufacturing innovation to greater prominence with the goal of shaping the climate and manufacturing policy agenda.

ITIF hosted a discussion of the future of federal energy RD&D investment with experts from ITIF, Columbia University’s Center for Global Energy Policy (CGEP), and elsewhere, with opening remarks by Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR).

ITIF hosted a discussion with industry leaders on the role of digitalization in driving energy efficiency gains across the economy, and the release of a new ITIF report assessing the concerns—some legitimate and most not—regarding the energy and environmental impacts of the tech sector.

ITIF and the Aspen Institute hosted the Washington, DC release of the Innovation for a Cool Earth Forum’s (ICEF’s) Industrial Heat Decarbonization Roadmap and convened an expert panel exploring the challenges of industrial heat decarbonization.

Sustained innovation in clean industrial processes is necessary to avert the worst consequences of climate change, better serve the diverse demands of the American public and enhance U.S. economic competitiveness and national security. The federal government plays a key role in fostering innovation and encouraging cleantech entrepreneurship and investment.

Even with continued improvements and cost reductions to current emissions reducing technologies, the world is not on track to achieve the deep reductions in greenhouse gas emissions necessary to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. Join ITIF for the release of a new report analyzing hard-to-decarbonize sectors and an expert panel discussion on the limits of current technologies and potential solutions.