The Economic and Climate Case for Clean Energy Innovation

As long as clean energy costs more than dirty energy, most countries will simply set less ambitious goals, change the goals when new governments come to power, or ignore the goals outright when it comes time to raise energy prices on consumers who vote, writes Rob Atkinson in Innovation: The Journal of Technology Commercialization. The only way to meet climate goals in the near to mid-future will be with coherent and well-funded clean energy innovation strategy. Unfortunately the world is grossly underinvesting in the advancement of the very technologies needed to break fossil fuels’ grip on the global economy. All developed and emerging economies should commit to increasing public investments in clean energy innovation to at least 0.15 percent of GDP annually, which would amount to $100 billion a year collectively.