Decarbonization & Net Zero

Catalog description

This course covers the levers within government (policy, regulatory agencies, legislation) and outside of government (communities, businesses, NGOs.) Any organization in pursuit of either a new energy technology or a decarbonizing one must understand and engage with these entities. To meet our net-zero goals in time, we must scale up deployment for deep decarbonization in parallel with the annual removal of gigatons of carbon dioxide from the accumulating pool in the atmosphere. There are, however, multiple barriers to deployment: high costs for first-of-a-kind technology demonstrations; lack of policy frameworks across the broad portfolio of approaches that enable nth-of-a-kind technologies to become universally affordable; and a lack of public acceptance of energy technologies in environmentally impacted communities. That said, by following the path from inception to application to deployment, we will unpack the multiple levers of governance required: the relationship between a vote, a bill, and, ultimately, a law. We’ll dig into the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, explore existing policy levers like 45Q (a tax credit and direct pay that can line up financing to capitalize 2nd- and 3rd-of-a-kind demonstrations). We’ll discuss the impact of non-governmental organizations, how think tanks can drive change, how communities can be engaged. Finally, we will examine the risks and benefits of technology demonstrations within communities: how regional resources, population density, availability of land and water impact the siting of projects; what legacy and future environmental justice impacts might result.