Implementing Negative Emissions Technologies (NETs): An Innovation Note

Summary

In this issue of Viewpoints, the author observes that:

The goal of negative-emissions-technologies (NET) innovation is to demonstrate and deploy these technologies on a time scale that allows meeting the 2015 Paris Agreement objective of limiting global average temperature increase. Implementing this innovation requires a complex effort that addresses many interconnected factors relevant to climate policy. These go beyond technical considerations to matters of economics, regulation, and market design. The greatest challenge to climate-change innovation is how to manage the transition of technology from the R&D stage to deployment. For a new solution such as NET to gain policymaker approval and resources needed to develop and deploy a practical operating system, advocates must come forward with a design-of-innovation program.

The author goes on to outline such a program design, focusing on creating a “new quasi-public corporation to advance” NET toward deployment.

The complete text of this Viewpoints is available at the link below.

John Deutch is former Undersecretary and Director of Energy Research, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE); Undersecretary for Acquisition and Technology, U.S. Department of Defense; and Dean of Science and Provost, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Deutch was a member of the DOE Secretary of Energy Advisory Council for Secretaries Steven Chou and Ernest Moniz and a member of the President’s Science Council for Presidents Ronald Reagan and William Clinton.

Viewpoints present policy proposals, considered opinions, and commentary by distinguished policymakers, leaders from business and non-governmental organizations, and scholars. The Harvard Project on Climate Agreements does not advocate any specific climate-change-policy proposals. Statements and views expressed in Viewpoints are solely those of the author(s) and do not imply endorsement by Harvard University, the Harvard Kennedy School, or the Harvard Project on Climate Agreements.