Natural History Wanderings

from Yale School of the Environment

To spur decarbonization, public investments must go beyond government support of research and development and expand into the manufacturing and deployment of new technology. To do this, governments must move beyond the myths surrounding public investment in clean energy that discourage use of public funds, a newly published Yale School of the Environment-led commentary in “Nature Energy” explains

.In 2021, worldwide investment in low-carbon energy transition was $755 billion, far below what is required, the authors note. Climate finance must grow by a factor of almost six by 2030 to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. However, government support in helping to advance clean energy technology, the authors say, has been hampered by three key myths that permeate the discussion: government should not pick “winners” by throwing funding behind key innovators; public financing of a specific technology company could lead to excessive government support known as “rent-seeking”; and publicly funded clean energy technology that fails is tantamount to policy failures.

Read more at Debunking the myths that discourage public funding of clean energy | UC Berkeley Rausser College of Natural Resources