Annotated Table of Contents Making Climate Tech Work Policies that Drive Innovation Alon Tal
Preface Chapter 1: Tech Policy and the Climate Crisis • The Innovation Imperative o Ensuring Economic Prosperity o Providing Public Goods and National Security o Addressing Market Failures • Why Climate Tech Policy Is Different o Externalities o Extended Development Horizons o The High Cost of Early Experimentation o Urgency • Public Policies to Promote Climate Tech Innovation— What’s on the Menu
Chapter 2: A Global Framework for Mitigation • • • • • •
Margaret Thatcher and a UN Climate Convention: Unlikely Environmental Hero A Global Crisis: Leakage and Carbon Border Adjustments The Long Road to Paris International Commitments under the Paris Accord Renewable Portfolio Standards—The Potential of Quotas Climate Cooperation – Informal and Formal Approaches to Save the Planet
Chapter 3: Jumpstarting Research and Development • • • • • • • •
Demand-Pull versus Supply-Push Climate Innovation Strategies Growth in Funding for Climate Research Government’s Delicate Dance in Sponsoring Climate Research Incubators and Accelerators Evaluating Climate Research Policy Success Effective Climate Research Policy: The Case of Denmark ReSource’s Path Across the Valley of Death The Imperative of Effective R&D Policies
Chapter 4: Monetizing Carbon • • • • • • •
The Birth of an American Social of Cost of Carbon Carbon Taxes: The Great Disappointment Emission Trading Systems – Theory versus Practice The EU’s Emissions Trading System: Trial and Error China’s Tradable Permit System Emissions Trading and Innovation The Political Limits and Potential of Economic Incentives
Chapter 5: Incentives for Innovation • • • • • • • •
Jimmy Carter, Tax Breaks for Renewables and Solar Panels on the White House Roof SolarCity Discovers Tax Exemptions Net-Metering and Paying for Grid Infrastructure The Inflation Reduction Act: Tax Credits on Steroids Feed-in Tariffs: The German Greens Transform the Global PV Market Subsidies Down Under Carbon Contracts for Differences Changing the Economic Calculus
Chapter 6: Forcing Climate Technology • •
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Technology Forcing Politics and the 1970 Clean Air Act Amendments Three Tales of Climate Technology–Forcing o Mandatory Solar Water Heaters—A fifty-year retrospective o The Logic of LED Lighting o The Scourge of Single-Use Plastic Technology-Forcing: Lessons from the Past Up and Coming Climate Tech–Forcing Initiatives Transformative versus Incremental Innovation
Chapter 7: The Power of Public Procurement • • • • • •
Buy Clean California and Low-carbon diets in Folsom Prison Tentative Steps toward Green Public Procurement Overcoming Public Procurement Flaws Public Procurement and Innovation The First Movers Coalition Reporting and Rippling
Chapter 8: Nudging Down Carbon • • • •
A German housewife buys a power grid and nudges her town towards clean electricity Green Nudges to Reduce Carbon Footprints Providing Information Changing the Physical Environment
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Creating Climate-Friendly Default Options Conveying Social Norms and Feedback The Ethics of Nudges
Chapter 9: Disruption • • • • • • •
Professor Mark Jacobson’s Net-Zero Future and the Job Market The Employment Dividend of a Net-Zero-Emissions Economy Creative Destruction: Joseph Schumpeter and the Ramification of Innovation Global Warming and the Global Labor Market Decarbonization and Disruption The New Decarbonized Job Market Transitional Assistance Policies
Chapter 10 Development and Decarbonization •
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Obstacles to Adopting Climate Technology and Innovation o Poverty and Emissions o Access to Finance o Infrastructure o Technical Capacity o Governance, Corruption and Reliability Blending Finance: A Green New Deal for Africa Renewed Commitments from the Global Community Towards Global Leadership
Chapter 11: Reaching Net Zero A Brief Summary and a Climate Agenda for a Sustainable Future Acknowledgments Notes About the Author Index