The climate is being changed – scientific innovation is part of the solution

The impacts of our energy system have grown to the scale of the earth’s ecosystem and meteorological processes. The consequences appear dire as the world’s responses to date are far below what is needed to avoid the consequences. Change of the scale needed is possible, and new technologies with lower costs and clear economic benefits will help speed up the response we need to make.

Research, development and deployment of renewable wind and solar power have shown remarkable advances in performance and cost that set the stage for significant changes in the power sector. However, the transportation and industrial sectors lag far behind in readiness for meeting climate mitigation goals, while the feasibility of negative emissions remains very unclear.

Examples of high-potential pathways across the power, transportation, industrial and negative emissions sectors are now arising from targeted innovation in energy technology such as those of ARPA-E, and targeted investment by mission-focused investors such as Breakthrough Energy Ventures.