In conjunction with the Department’s senior leadership and the Chief Financial Officer, the Office leads portfolio reviews, assessments of various research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) investment options, and coordinates planning for near- and long-term portfolios. The Office conducts and presents underlying analyses, modeling of scenarios, and makes recommendations for integrated priorities across the Departmental elements in its annual budgeting processes.

Climate change-related programs for which the Office of Policy and International Affairs provides management, leadership, and strategic direction include:

U.S. Climate Change Technology Program

Climate VISION

1605b – Voluntary Reporting of Greenhouse Gas

U.S. Climate Change Technology Program: The U.S. Climate Change Technology Program (CCTP) is a multi-agency planning and coordination entity, whose mission is to accelerate the development and adoption of technologies that can reduce, avoid, or capture and store greenhouse gas emissions by strengthening the Federal research and development portfolio across more than a dozen participating agencies.

CCTP was established administratively in 2002, authorized by the Energy Policy Act (EPAct) in 2005, and appropriated funds for mission accomplishment starting in FY 2007. It released its Strategic Plan in September 2006. CCTP takes guidance from the Cabinet-level Committee on Climate Change Science and Technology Integration (CCCSTI) and its subordinate Interagency Working Group on Climate Change Science and Technology (IWG-CCST), composed of agency deputies. DOE is designated as the lead agency for CCTP and provides for its director, deputy director, and support staff. The Department’s Office of Climate Change Policy and Technology serves as CCTP’s principal provider of strategic planning, intra- and interagency leadership, coordination, technical modeling, analyses and other staff support.

To accomplish its mission, CCTP provides strategic direction and support to its member agencies on climate change technology issues, coordinates R&D planning, conducts underlying analyses, assesses portfolios and progress, and makes recommendations during the annual budget process on an integrated, prioritized portfolio of climate change-related technology investments. In the Federal Government’s FY 2008 budget, the CCTP portfolio accounted for $4.4 billion in R&D aimed at accelerating development and deployment of climate change technologies.

The activities of CCTP are multi-agency in nature and carried out by Federal employees drawn from all relevant agencies, in conjunction with experts from national laboratories, industry, and academia. CCTP's six Working Groups are populated by subject matter experts from the relevant federal agencies.

Under Title XVI of EPAct, CCTP’s R&D mission was expanded to address commercialization and deployment (C&D). CCTP’s C&D activities identify barriers to entry and market risks impeding the C&D of GHG-emissions reducing technologies. Analysis is planned for looking at policies and other mitigating options to address such barriers and risks.

For more information on CCTP, please visit http://www.climatetechnology.gov.

Climate VISION: Climate VISION – Voluntary Innovative Sector Initiatives: Opportunities Now – is a voluntary public-private partnership initiative to pursue cost-effective strategies to improve energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions intensity, defined as emissions per unit of gross domestic product (GDP), in energy-intensive industrial sectors. DOE’s Office of Climate Change Policy and Technology provides management, analysis, communications, and other staff support to this innovative partnership.

Business and trade associations currently participating in Climate VISION represent 13 energy-intensive industrial sectors including electric power producers; petroleum refiners; automobile, iron and steel, aluminum, chemical, and magnesium manufacturers; forest products producers; and the cement, mining, industrial minerals, lime, and semiconductor industries. In total, these sectors account for approximately 40 to 45 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.

Each of these Climate VISION partners has issued a letter of intent that sets out goals – both quantitative and qualitative – for improving energy efficiency or greenhouse gas emissions-intensity to contribute to the achievement of the President’s goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions intensity by 18 percent by 2012. Working with four Cabinet agencies, led by the Department of Energy, the partners have undertaken a range of activities in support of their goals and detailed their strategies for meeting their goals in a work plan. Since the program launch in 2003, the Climate VISION partners report that they are making progress toward achieving their 2012 goals, with many ahead of schedule.

For more information on Climate VISION, please visit http://www.climatevision.gov.

1605b – Voluntary Reporting of Greenhouse Gases: The Voluntary Reporting of Greenhouse Gases Program, established by Section 1605(b) of the Energy Policy Act of 1992, provides a means for organizations and individuals that have reduced their GHG emissions to record their accomplishments and share their ideas for action. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) administers the program, collects the voluntarily reported data, and publishes related reports. Under the auspices of the Office of Policy and International Affairs, the Office of Climate Change Policy and Technology formulates the technical guidelines and provides policy support.

In March 2007, DOE published in the Federal Register a Final Rule, effective 30 days after publication, referencing corrected Technical Guidelines dated January 2007. These Technical Guidelines corrected factual and drafting errors, eliminated inconsistencies, updated certain references, clarified intent, and modified or eliminated certain inappropriate calculation methods in previous Technical Guidelines. All of the changes made were fully consistent with the General Guidelines published in the Federal Register on April 21, 2006, and DOE’s original intent.

Since the inception of the program in 1994, the number of entities reporting has grown by 105 percent. The 2,379 projects reported for 2005 represent an increase of 275 percent over the 634 projects reported in 1994. DOE hopes that the proposed guidelines will encourage major U.S. companies and institutions to undertake comprehensive reviews of their greenhouse gas emissions and to take actions to reduce emissions. By emphasizing the importance of providing a full accounting of all greenhouse gas emissions and emission reductions, the revised guidelines are designed to stimulate broad, economy-wide efforts that are needed to help reduce the greenhouse gas intensity of the U.S. economy.

To participate in this voluntary program, or to access past reports, please visit http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/1605/frntvrgg.html

For more information on the revisions and enhancements to the General and Technical Guidelines, please visit http://www.pi.energy.gov/enhancingGHGregistry/index.html

Other Climate Activities: Apart from its coordinating role for the programs listed above, the Office of Policy and International Affairs supports other climate-relevant DOE program activities, Cabinet and sub-Cabinet-level committees, and specific national and international initiatives. In FY 2009, the Office anticipates continued support for:

• G8 Climate Change Action Plan, updated through Toyako (July 2008);
• Major Economies Process of the 17 largest global GHG emitters, initiated by the United States in September 2007;
• Asia-Pacific Partnership for Clean Development and Climate (APP);
• Climate Technology Initiative, a technology transfer program of the International Energy Agency (IEA);
• Interagency coordination of USG support of and input to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC);
• Interagency coordination and technical support of USG interactions with the UNFCCC’s International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), particularly Working Group III on Mitigation, various Special Reports, including Renewable Energy;
• Working with EPA on GHG mandatory reporting;
• Climate change provisions of EPAct 2005, including Title XVI (a national strategy promoting climate change technology deployment and commercialization); and
• Coordination and policy support for a number of multilateral science and technology initiatives, including the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF), International Partnership for the Hydrogen Economy (IPHE), Generation IV International Forum (GIF), and the international fusion energy experiment, known as ITER.