100% renewables doesn’t equal zero-carbon energy, and the difference is growing
If you want to do something about climate change—I&#x27;ve just launched crowdfunding campaign to raise $2 million dollar for effective climate policy.<p>It&#x27;s for the Clean Energy Innovation program at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF)—a top-ranked US think tank. The program is led by Professor David Hart and Dr. Colin Cunliff whose policy research focuses on the effectiveness of higher and smarter clean energy R&amp;D spending and communicating this to policy-makers.<p>We have done hundreds of hours of research to figure out most effective way to donate to combat climate change and believe this is best place to donate. Why?<p>You can read our in-depth analysis at <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;lets-fund.org&#x2F;clean-energy&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;lets-fund.org&#x2F;clean-energy&#x2F;</a>, but briefly:<p>Advanced economies like the US and EU are prioritizing reducing their own emissions. But by 2040, 75% of all emissions will come from emerging economies such as China and India. Only if advanced economies’ climate policies reduce emissions in all countries will we prevent dangerous climate change. The best policies to do this are those that stimulate innovation and clean energy technology cheaper in all countries. We compared 10 climate policies that stimulate innovation (e.g. carbon taxes, deployment subsidies, cutting fossil fuel subsidies) and found that increasing government budgets for public clean energy research and development (R&amp;D) is the most effective—even more effective than carbon taxes.<p>Public clean energy R&amp;D is neglected: only $22 billion is spent per year globally compared to $140 billion spent on clean energy deployment subsidies and trillions spent on energy. Many advanced economies (e.g. U.S., EU) could unilaterally increase this substantially without international coordination—which makes this much more politically tractable than carbon taxes.
Better yet, advanced economies can coordinate spending parts of their GDP on clean energy R&amp;D. Many countries have already done so by signing an international ‘Mission Innovation’ agreement, but are not on track to fulfill their pledges. Donating to this campaign might lead countries to get back on track and increase clean energy R&amp;D budgets.<p>This would make low-carbon energy cheaper, carbon taxes more politically acceptable, and prevent dangerous climate change.