How Trump could undo portions of Biden’s climate legacy
Biden's most recent climate initiatives are all but certain to be short-lived, mostly thanks to an obscure law that tends to come into play every four years.
Energy Explained
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Trade Policy Disputes at COP Are Here to Stay
This year’s Conference of the Parties (COP-29) broke new ground with the Baku Initiative for Climate Finance, Investment, and Trade (BICFIT)—the first high-profile COP initiative to place trade...
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Transforming America’s Power System
This week host Jason Bordoff talks with Cheryl LaFleur and David Hill about the incoming Trump administration, its impact on FERC, and the status of permitting reform measures.
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January 30, 2025
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Can AI Help Reduce Emissions of Greenhouse Gases?
Please join the Center on Global Energy Policy (CGEP) at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs for a special webinar "Can AI Help Reduce Emissions of...
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In a working paper jointly published by the Center on Global Energy Policy, the Belfer Center at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, the authors — including CGEP Inaugural Fellow David Sandalow — explore geopolitical issues that could accompany the widespread deployment of renewable energy technologies. Following an overview of six renewable energy scenarios for the coming decades, the paper outlines seven mechanisms through which renewable energy technologies could shape geopolitics:
- Critical material supply chains: As the transition to renewable energy proceeds, cartels could develop around materials critical to renewable energy technologies including rare earth elements, lithium, cobalt and indium.
- Electric grids: Renewable energy technologies will reshape electric grids, with complex implications for relations among nations.
- Reduced oil and gas demand: To the extent renewable energy technologies and electric vehicles reduce oil and gas demand, they could reshape relations among oil and gas importers and exporters.
- New “resource curse”: The “resource curse” could become less of a factor in oil and gas exporting nations and more important in countries exporting materials critical for renewable energy technologies.
- Avoided climate change: By reducing emissions of heat-trapping gases, renewable energy technologies can reduce the risk of conflict and instability as a result of climate change.
- Energy access: Renewable energy technologies can help provide access to modern energy services to those who now lack it, reducing poverty and associated risks of instability and migration.
- Technology and finance: The ability to exploit renewable energy depends critically on access to technology and finance, giving potential advantages to countries with strong innovation cultures and access to capital.
The paper notes the need for further research on all these topics and concludes by providing options for further analysis.
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What Trump Can Do to Reverse US Climate Policy − and What He Probably Can’t Change
While he hasn’t released an official plan, Trump’s playbook the last time he was in office and his frequent complaints about clean energy offer clues to what’s ahead.
How the Next US President Could Shape Energy and Climate Policy
November’s election for president of the United States will have crucial implications for the nation’s and world’s energy and climate policies.
Blog
by Jason Bordoff, Karen E. Young, Erica Downs, Shayak Sengupta, Gautam Jain, Robert (RJ) Johnston, Ira Joseph, Luisa Palacios, Diego Rivera Rivota, Jonathan Elkind, Anne-Sophie Corbeau & Noah Kaufman • October 15, 2024
Climate of Contempt
Why is the United States struggling to enact policies to reduce carbon emissions? Conventional wisdom holds that the wealthy and powerful are to blame, as the oligarchs and corporations that wield disproportionate sway over politicians prioritize their short-term financial interests over the climate’s long-term health.
Books
by David Spence • September 11, 2024
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