e to widespread deployment, we should remember that innovation accelerates where a vibrant private sector and competition flourish. Governments certainly have a role in funding research, development, and demonstration of technologies, and policy can play a role in supporting early deployment of these technologies, as they enter into commerce. At the mass commercialization stage, a diverse and competitive marketplace—guided by the right market and policy signals to demand improved performance—can work wonders in incentivizing the best mix of approaches to achieve emissions reduction goals.
At Resources for the Future (RFF), many individuals are working today on policy approaches that can enable this type of technology-inclusive approach, including research and policy engagement in the energy and power sector, new initiatives to address industrial emissions, carbon in forests and other land uses, and more. We’re also looking at how communities that have historically depended on the production and transformation of fossil fuels can become more economically resilient while taking advantage of the potential that a wide range of new technologies can offer to create economic and job opportunities, while reducing emissions.
Setting the Pace to the Finish Line
This technology-inclusive approach allows for ambitious clean energy and climate goals, but it doesn’t make any particular technology a prerequisite for climate action. It engages more stakeholders, making climate action more accessible, more feasible, more globally impactful, and cheaper. It asks governments to use policy instruments to price carbon, set market-based performance standards that target net emissions, and invest in new innovations. And it welcomes a wide range of technologies in the solution set, whether they facilitate an expansion of renewables, nuclear, carbon capture, synthetic fuels, or any other climate-friendly solution. A technology-inclusive approach will likely require all of the above.
We have an enormous challenge ahead of us. But instead of growing intimidated by the scale of our energy and climate challenge, we should be invigorated by the variety of potential solutions and excited to see what solutions we can devise to maintain a thriving economy and a healthy environment. What we need now is dynamic decisionmaking that can set a framework in place for this transition.
This article is based on remarks delivered at the T20 Inception Conference in January 2020.