Resources

Virtually all paths to a net-zero-emissions food system rely on consumers in high-income countries shifting to a more plant-forward diet. Energy Innovation's Daniel J. O'Brien and AGCI's Devan Crane explore emerging research on how food producers and consumers, as well as policymakers, can tackle food system emissions in this piece for Yale Climate Connections.

Emerging research is beginning to shed light on actions that consumers and producers alike can take to reduce food system impacts on the climate. Emissions are generated at every stage of the food system, from the production on farm to the food you scrape off your plate.

In this Yale Climate Connections article, AGCI's James Arnott and Energy Innovation Policy & Technology LLC®'s Michelle Solomon explain how adoption of new climate technologies involves "learning curves," which policymakers must account for to accurately estimate the declining future cost of clean energy.

How quickly we reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions critically depends on how fast we learn in the process. New research uses learning curves to explain staggering declines in costs of key climate technologies like solar photovoltaics and batteries, grounding hopes that we can get where we need to go—as long as we don’t delay getting started.

Many US coastal states are looking to the prospect of ocean renewable energy (ORE), particularly offshore wind, to help meet ambitious emissions reduction goals. Social science offers insight into who supports or opposes ORE and why, and suggests actions that could help promote a more just transition to ORE.

By creating structures for marginalized communities to generate their own renewable electricity, community-driven programs like Europe's Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) have the potential to improve energy justice. However, as AGCI's Emily Jack-Scott and Energy Innovation Policy & Technology LLC®'s Hadley Tallackson explain, recent research illustrates how RECs must be carefully designed to not worsen energy inequities facing low-income and vulnerable households.

New research showcases how coupling existing state efforts to accelerate renewable energy adoption in underserved low-income communities and to replace aging gas distribution networks with district heating and cooling could transform overburdened communities into high energy-performance communities that are safer and more resilient.

Renewable energy communities (RECs) have the potential to empower communities and benefit energy-vulnerable and energy-poor households. Recent research and review articles look at how this plays out in practice.

In this Yale Climate Connections article, AGCI's Martín Bonzi and Energy Innovation Policy & Technology LLC®'s Sarah Spengeman discuss how agrivoltaics researchers are finding multiple benefits from pairing solar power and crops production, which can increase citizen engagement and support for solar development.

Recent research evaluates how agrivoltaics -- co-locating solar electricity generation and agricultural production -- may achieve sustainable energy and food goals while possibly reducing local opposition to solar energy deployment.