Raising $90 Billion for High-Priority Demonstration Projects This Decade
Achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 requires developing and scaling innovative clean technologies not yet commercially available. The International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Net Zero by 2050 roadmap identifies at least $90 billion in public investments needed by 2026 for large-scale clean energy technology demonstration projects around the world to be completed this decade. Investing in the first several commercial-scale demonstrations of transformative technologies during this decade will enable their large-scale deployment to achieve global net-zero emissions by midcentury in every sector of the economy, including heavy industry and long-distance transport. Targeted technologies could include, for example, clean hydrogen, carbon dioxide removal, grid-scale energy storage, industrial decarbonization and carbon capture, advanced nuclear, advanced clean fuels, and next-generation offshore wind.
At the Major Economies Forum on June 17, 2022, President Biden challenged other countries to join the United States in supporting a collective goal to reach the $90 billion in public investment recommended by the IEA. These public investments will leverage additional private investments and advance innovative technologies already in demand by the world’s largest companies through the First Movers Coalition launched by the United States and the World Economic Forum. The President invited interested countries to come prepared to announce specific investment levels at the Global Clean Energy Action Forum (Global Energy Forum) – a joint convening of the Mission Innovation and Clean Energy Ministerial meetings - that the United States is hosting September 21-23, 2022 in Pittsburgh. He also invited countries to announce at the Global Energy Forum preliminary action plans identifying how they will deploy these technologies to promote an inclusive and equitable transition.
Under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law signed by President Biden, the United States is devoting $21.5 billion to high-priority clean technology demonstration projects, to be deployed by DOE’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations. And just last week the President invoked the Defense Production Act to boost manufacturing of electrolyzers that will be used to produce clean hydrogen and the Department of Energy recently issued a loan guarantee to construct one of the world’s largest clean hydrogen storage facilities.
Canada, the European Commission, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United Arab Emirates expressed support for the challenge.
For more information on the technical analysis behind the challenge, please see the IEA’s Technical Note.