Scaling up: global technology deployment to stabilize emissions

Abstract

Climate change is becoming a defining fact of economic development. Three areas need to coalesce into a coherent vision in order to achieve adequate levels of emissions reductions: The technologies involved, including the physical and capacity-related constraints to deploying them; The investment required: who will provide it, the mechanisms they will use, and its cost; The policies that will offer the most effective incentives to providers of both technology and capital to implement lower-emission solutions. A paper by two Princeton researchers Pacala and Socolow provided a mental framework to discuss these solutions by breaking the required emission reductions down into manageable (though still large) 'wedges,' each provided by a different technology or set of technologies. Owing to its solution-oriented framework, the wedges approach has captured the imagination of those eager to tackle climate change. These include among the 15 options: replacing coal baseload power plants with gas plants, capturing CO{sub 2} at coal and gas power plants, capturing CO{sub 2} at coal-to-synfuels plant and increasing use of renewables. This paper presents an overview, using the wedges framework, on how technology, investment and policy interact. It is intended to engage actors in the policy and investment communities as the key enablesmore » of clean technology deployment worldwide. 30 refs., 5 figs., 2 tabs.« less