THE NET-ZERO BLOG
Climate policy analysis and updates from Sacramento
Aligning GGRF with the 2022 Scoping Plan
California’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) generates roughly $4 billion annually for appropriation by the Legislature to support the state’s climate goals. However, a majority of these investments were set and have been unchanged since 2014. As policymakers consider cap-and-trade reauthorization it makes sense to review current GGRF allocations in light of the latest available science. In this blog we evaluate the alignment between current GGRF allocations and the 2022 Scoping Plan. We find there is a significant mismatch – including that arguably none of the continuous appropriations (65%) are priority investments for the state’s climate goals.
Data analysis of California’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund
California’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) generates roughly $4 billion per year in cap-and-trade auction proceeds for appropriation by the Legislature to support the state’s climate goals. As legislators contemplate cap-and-trade reauthorization, including the potential to revise current GGRF allocations, we analyze the latest available GGRF data (May 2024).
California advances toward climate goals: the $39 billion budget
The Legislature and Governor Newsom recently delivered a game-changing $39 billion climate budget and an important set of new policies to propel California towards its climate goals. In this blog post – the first of a three-part series – we review the central piece to the state’s recent actions: the $39 billion climate budget.
Op-ed: Maximizing the impact of a history-making federal clean energy investment program
Op-ed announcement: A recent op-ed in The Hill describes a novel approach to identifying and prioritizing policy and investment actions in order to achieve ambitious climate targets.
Publication: Defining the value of carbon capture, utilization and storage for a low-carbon future
Carbon capture, utilization and storage is identified in a number of integrated assessment models (IAMs) as an available mitigation option to support the global energy transition. Despite this, there continues to be dissent and misinformation in some quarters regarding the role CCUS can or should play in a low-carbon future. This publication from the International Energy Agency’s Greenhouse Gas Technology Collaboration Programme, reviews recent literature from sector-specific techno-economic models, global and regional IAMs, and social studies to assess the value of CCUS. This publication also introduces a decision framework to help policymakers screen the relative competitiveness of CCUS and applies this framework across case studies in the US, UK, Indonesia, Australia and Japan.
Publication: Bridging capital discipline and energy scenarios
Modeled energy scenarios, such as those prepared by the IPCC's Working Group III, are the main analytical tools relied upon to inform climate change policies at global and national scales. It is important, then, that scenarios are feasible – meaning the modeled sequence of actions (i.e., progressive expansion in clean electricity, fuels, materials, etc.) resembles what could be delivered in reality. To the extent there is a disconnect, adopted policies may fail to assure mitigation targets. This publication in Energy & Environmental Science highlights one important such disconnect related to asset mobilization. That is, the difference between the way models assume assets are mobilized, compared to the approach exhibited by risk-taking commercial enterprises. Bridging this fault-line is essential to reduce the risk of target shortfall. We describe a conceptual approach to do so, termed ‘reverse-engineering’, and highlight the value of cultivating a new community of applied researchers working with practitioners to advance the reverse-engineering technique.