Energy Sc: Government, private sector need to invest in clean energy Art on Eiffel Tower...

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https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2015/11/30/government-private-sector-need-invest-clean-energy/nSjYWGp3iuxcrhNaegguvN/story.html

Opinion | Ernest Moniz
Government, private sector need to invest in clean energy



Thibault Camus/AP





An artwork entitled “One Heart One Tree” by artist Naziha Mestaoui is displayed on the Eiffel tower ahead of the 2015 Paris Climate Conference.



By Ernest Moniz November 30, 2015

IN 2010, the American Energy Innovation Council, composed of CEOs from multiple industries, called for the tripling of energy research and development, or R&D, citing the need for a dramatic expansion of the energy innovation pipeline to meet critical national priorities. That same year, I helped lead an energy task force of President Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology with the central message of accelerating the pace of technology innovation to meet economic competitiveness, environmental, and energy security needs. It’s no coincidence that industry and government groups, both with key roles in shaping energy markets, reached virtually identical conclusions.

Now, as secretary of energy, I have the opportunity to help shape a national response to this common goal to accelerate innovation. There has already been remarkable progress in driving down the cost of key clean energy technologies. Over the last six years, costs have fallen by 40 percent to 90 percent for land-based wind, rooftop and utility solar, electric car batteries, and LED lighting. Unsurprisingly, technology diffusion has grown over that period. Wind generation capacity has tripled, solar 20-fold, and LEDs 200-fold.

These impressive gains are still insufficient to meet our long-term climate goals while providing affordable, reliable, and secure energy supplies. The national greenhouse gas reduction commitments made prior to the Paris climate negotiations that begin Monday are very important, but increased ambition will still be needed in the years and decades ahead to limit global temperature rise to two degrees Celsius. Innovation-driven lower clean energy costs will underpin increased ambition on climate, while enabling life-changing energy services to the poor and enhanced global energy security. We can’t afford to wait.

Today, there is good news to report. At the start of the Paris conference, leaders of 20 countries are giving a ringing endorsement of “Mission Innovation,” an initiative that is singularly focused on accelerating clean energy innovation and cost reduction. The president and 19 other leaders from countries with diverse energy needs and interests will seek to double their national clean energy R&D budgets over five years. Collectively, these countries represent about 80 percent of the world’s current national investments in clean energy R&D, so doubling is significant. At the Department of Energy, this translates into an additional $4 billion by the end of 2020..................