Climate 2030

Climate 2030: A National Blueprint for a Clean Energy Economy is a peer-reviewed analysis of the economic and technological potential for a comprehensive suite of climate, energy, and transportation solutions and policies to greatly reduce U.S. global warming emissions and help get us on a path to avoiding some of the worst impacts of climate change. The results demonstrate that meeting stringent near- and medium-term emissions caps in the United States is feasible and can be done cost-effectively. This analysis is an important contribution to the U.S. and international climate policy debates.

 

The analysis relies primarily on a modified version of the Department of Energy's National Energy Modeling System (NEMS). The model was supplemented with offline analyses of energy efficiency and availability of biomass energy. The combined modeling effort is an integrated assessment of a package of climate and energy policies across multiple sectors of the economy within a timeframe of 2030. It captures the dynamic feedback effects between energy use, prices, investments, and the economy, while also considering competition for limited resources and land. Different policy scenarios, sets of assumptions, and resource/technology packages were analyzed. Among the solutions modeled are increased energy efficiency, greater contributions from renewable energy, increased vehicle efficiency, increased investment in research, development and deployment of existing and new low carbon technologies, smart growth incentives and the implementation of an economywide cap-and-trade program.

 

The analysis shows that the technologies and policies pursued under the Blueprint produce dramatic changes in energy use and cuts in carbon emissions. It also shows that consumers and businesses reap significant savings on their energy bills, while the economy continues to grow robustly.