Climate Innovation 2050 brings together more than four dozen leading companies to examine pathways toward decarbonizing the U.S. economy. Sectors represented include power, transportation, finance, tech, oil and gas, chemicals, cement, manufacturing, and food/agriculture.

To date, Climate Innovation 2050 has produced:

• Background briefs examining key challenges and opportunities in decarbonizing U.S. agriculture/land use, buildings, electric power, industry, oil and gas, and transportation
• A set of near-term federal actions that can garner bipartisan support and strengthen the foundation for comprehensive long-term solutions
• A report, Pathways to 2050: Scenarios for Decarbonizing the U.S. Economy, that presents and draws insights from three alternative scenarios for decarbonizing the U.S. economy.
• Getting to Zero: A U.S. Climate Agenda, a major report outlining the policies needed over the coming decade to put the United States on the path to carbon neutrality by 2050.
• Restoring the Economy with Climate Solutions: Recommendations to Congress, a range of measures that Congress should consider to advance both economic recovery and climate solutions.
• Climate Policy Priorities for the new administration and Congress, a comprehensive set of policy priorities to drive climate innovation, reduce emissions, strengthen climate resilience, remedy inequities and—in many cases—support the post-pandemic economic recovery. Taken together, these steps would establish the essential foundations of an ambitious, just, durable, bipartisan climate policy putting the United States on the path toward carbon neutrality.
• A series of Closer Look briefs, A Building Block for Climate Action: Reporting on Embodied Emissions, Engineered Carbon Dioxide Removal: Scalability and Durability, Clean Industrial Heat: A Technology Inclusive Framework, Clean Heat Pathways for Industrial Decarbonization, Using Digitalization to Achieve Decarbonization Goals, Catalyzing Investment with a National Climate Bank and Carbon Dioxide Removal: Pathways and Policy Needs.
• A a series of regional roundtables to elevate the perspectives of a diverse set of stakeholders deeply embedded in their communities and uniquely positioned to speak to the needs of their states and regions. These roundtables resulted in a series of briefs on regional economic and climate issues: Accelerating Vehicle Electrification in Michigan, Fueling Low-Carbon Future in Utah: the Role of Hydrogen, Building a Thriving, Clean and Equitable Economy in Arizona, and  Investing in West Virginia’s Future: Aligning Climate and Economic Development.
• These discussions were the basis for a series of webinars featuring stakeholders, including Seizing the Opportunity: Climate Investments in West Virginia’s Future Economy.

Getting to Zero

Getting to Zero: A U.S. Climate Agenda draws on input from leading companies in key sectors to present a comprehensive policy agenda for decarbonizing the U.S. economy.

As the foundation for a U.S. decarbonization strategy, Getting to Zero recommends that Congress set a national goal of carbon neutrality no later than 2050 and establish an overarching statutory framework for achieving it, including an economy-wide carbon pricing program.

Getting to Zero also recommends:

• Complementary federal, state, and local measures to address the power, transportation, industry, buildings, land use, and oil and gas sectors;
• Policies to drive innovation, mobilize finance, ensure a just transition, and advance technologies that can help reduce emissions across multiple sectors; and
• Steps companies should take to lead on climate action, including the adoption of carbon-neutrality goals and actively supporting decarbonization policies.

This comprehensive new agenda was released in fall 2019 at an event in Washington, D.C. with U.S. Reps. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) and Fred Upton (R-Mich.), Exelon Generation CEO Kenneth Cornew, and representatives of Mars, Inc., Dow, Intel Corporation, Entergy, and LafargeHolcim U.S.

C2ES is continuing to work with companies through Climate Innovation 2050 to advance and elaborate the recommendations outlined in Getting to Zero.

Decarbonization Scenarios

In a year-long collaboration with companies – and with the RAND Corporation, and the Joint Global Change Research Institute – C2ES produced and modeled three scenarios for reducing U.S. emissions 80 percent by 2050.  The three scenarios are called A Competitive Climate, Climate Federalism and Low-Carbon Lifestyles.

Unlike previous decarbonization studies focused primarily on technology pathways, this analysis considered a range of potential drivers and different types of policy, technology, business and consumer responses.  The resulting report, Pathways to 2050: Scenarios for Decarbonizing the U.S. Economy, presents the scenarios and modeling results, as well as key takeaways. These include the importance of policy in driving technology deployment and the need for all-in effort that includes policymakers at all levels, companies, investors and the public.

Stories on the report have appeared in major media, including Axios, Bloomberg News, Forbes, the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, Politico, and Utility Dive.