U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz explains Mission Innovation. | Video by Pat Adams and Simon Edelman.
Clean energy innovation is the solution to climate change.
It is the key to unlocking new technologies and low-cost clean energy breakthroughs we need to rapidly bend the trajectory of greenhouse gas emissions.
But we don’t have the luxury of waiting for new technologies to emerge. We need to rapidly accelerate the pace of innovation to meet the challenge of limiting global temperature rise to two degrees Celsius. That’s why President Obama and the leaders of 19 other nations announced Mission Innovation at COP21, the climate negotiations that produced the Paris Agreement.
Mission Innovation is joint effort by more than 20 nations to DOUBLE clean energy research and development by 2020.
Doubling clean energy R&D means improving existing energy technologies like wind and solar and achieving new breakthroughs in areas like energy storage. We need to develop and deploy these low-carbon solutions quickly enough -- and at a scale large enough -- to meet our critical climate goals.
In parallel to government efforts, Bill Gates and over 28 private investors from 10 countries have pledged to invest in these innovations through an initiative called the Breakthrough Energy Coalition. These public and private sector commitments -- in the tens of billions of dollars -- will help ensure we have the tools to combat climate change today and for decades to come.
Learn more about clean energy R&D at the Energy Department and our approach to providing climate solutions in the United States and around the world.
Clean Energy R&D
Take a look at some of our favorite examples of clean energy R&D. To meet the challenge of our generation, we need more R&D wins like these.
The National Labs
Many of tomorrow's energy technologies will get their start from research underway today. From biofuels to lightweight materials to 3D printing to solar cell efficiency, the Energy Department's National Labs are reinventing the way we produce and consume energy.
ARPA-E
The Advanced Research Project Agency - Energy invests in high-potential, high-impact energy technologies that are too early for private-sector investment. ARPA-E awardees are unique because they are developing entirely new ways to generate, store, and use energy.
Climate Change
Find out all of the ways we're tackling climate change, from research into new technologies, to making the ones we have work more efficiently.
How We Solve Climate Change
Read this blog by Secretary Ernest Moniz from the COP21 negotiations that produced the Paris Agreement. He describes how we solve climate change through science and technology, which drives costs down.
Breakthrough Energy Coalition
This group of prominent private investors pledged to invest in the energy technologies made available by increased R&D. This will help ensure the best breakthroughs make it out of the lab and into the market, where they can have a real impact on climate change.