Strategies for the Commercialization and Deployment of Greenhouse Gas Intensity-Reducing Technologies and Practices

New technologies will be a critical component--perhaps the critical component--of our efforts to tackle the related challenges of energy security, climate change, and air pollution, all the while maintaining a strong economy. But just developing new technologies is not enough. Our ability to accelerate the market penetration of clean energy, enabling, and other climate-related technologies will have a determining impact on our ability to slow, stop, and reverse the growth in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Title XVI, Subtitle A, of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct 2005) directs the Administration to report on its strategy to promote the commercialization and deployment (C&D) of GHG intensity-reducing technologies and practices. The Act also requests the Administration to prepare an inventory of climate-friendly technologies suitable for deployment and to identify the barriers and commercial risks facing advanced technologies. Because these issues are related, they are integrated here within a single report that we, representing the Committee on Climate Change Science and Technology Integration (CCCSTI), are pleased to provide the President, the Congress, and the public. Over the past eight years, the Administration of President George W. Bush has pursued a series of policies and measures aimed at encouraging the development and deployment of advanced technologies to reduce GHG emissions. This report highlights these policies and measures, discusses the barriers to each, and integrates them within a larger body of other extant policy. Taken together, more than 300 policies and measures described in this document may be viewed in conjunction with the U.S. Climate Change Technology Program's (CCTP's) Strategic Plan, published in September 2006, which focuses primarily on the role of advanced technology and associated research and development (R&D) for mitigating GHG emissions. The CCTP, a multi-agency technology planning and coordination program, initiated by President Bush, and subsequently authorized in EPAct2005, is responsible for preparing this report on behalf CCCSTI. This report systematically examines the market readiness of key technologies important to meeting climate change mitigation goals. It assesses the barriers and business risks impeding their progress and greater market application. Importantly, by documenting the hundreds of Federal policies, programs, regulations, incentives, and other activities that are in effect and operating today to address these barriers, it provides a broad context for evaluating the adequacy of current policy and the potential need, if any, for additional measures that might be undertaken by government or industry. Finally, it draws conclusions about the current situation, identifies gaps and opportunities, and suggests analytical principles that should be applied to assess and formulate policies and measures to accelerate the commercialization and deployment of these technologies