Report Outlines Promising Opportunities for
Addressing Climate Change
- November 15, 2000
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory Press Release
OAK RIDGE, Tenn., Nov. 15. 2000 - Researchers from five national
laboratories have issued a major report that finds the United States can
make impressive strides toward addressing climate change through smart
policies and technologies.
The report, "Scenarios for a Clean Energy Future," assesses
technologies and policies to meet energy-related challenges facing
the United States. It concludes that successful implementation of
these technologies and policies could reduce greenhouse gas emissions,
air pollution, oil dependence and economic inefficiencies. The report
also concludes that the overall economic benefits of the policies and
technologies that are modeled are comparable to their overall costs. The
benefits derive from energy savings throughout the economy.
"While previous studies have established the technical potential for
significantly cutting greenhouse gases and enhancing energy security,
this study shows the ability of policies to help realize this potential,"
said Marilyn Brown, deputy director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory's
Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy program.
Hundreds of technologies and 50 policies were analyzed. The most
important policies in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions were
found to include increased research and development, voluntary agreements
to promote energy efficiency in vehicles, buildings and industrial
processes, enhanced appliance efficiency standards, a domestic carbon
cap and trading system and electric industry restructuring. Some of the
policies analyzed are the policies of the current administration while
others are not.
Many energy-related challenges are addressed by this report.
Global climate change threatens to impose significant long-term costs
from increasing temperatures, rising sea levels and more extreme
weather. Despite ongoing improvements in air quality, air pollution
from burning hydrocarbons continues to cause high levels of respiratory
illnesses, acid rain and photochemical smog. Electricity outages, power
disturbances and price hikes could dampen U.S. productivity, especially
in the rapidly growing digital economy.
A scenario-based approach is used in the report to examine alternative
public policies that address these problems. The scenarios were developed
through discussions with representatives of business, universities,
nonprofit organizations and government to provide a broad range of
opinions. This range gives decision-makers and the public an opportunity
to study the advantages and disadvantages of different policy choices. The
report provides a better understanding of the advantages and disadvantages
of different policy choices, but contains no policy recommendations.
The most advanced scenario finds that by the year 2010, the United
States could bring its carbon dioxide emissions three-quarters of
the way back to 1990 levels. These reductions would come from every
sector of the economy. To meet the U.S. Kyoto Protocol goal of reducing
greenhouse emissions to 7 percent below 1990 levels by 2010, additional
measures would be needed. Extra steps could include international
carbon trading, reductions in other greenhouse gases and/or stronger
domestic policies.
The report also concludes that over time energy bill savings in these
scenarios can pay for the investments needed to achieve the reported
reductions in energy use and associated greenhouse gas emissions. However,
the report also notes that there will be certain negative sectoral
impacts.
The report was commissioned by DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and
Renewable Energy.
Participating in the report are researchers from Argonne National
Laboratory, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Pacific Northwest
National Laboratory.
The report is posted on the World Wide Web at http://www.ornl.gov/ORNL/Energy_Eff/CEF.htm.
