By Fred Krupp, President of the Environmental Defense Fund
President Trump’s victory was powered by economic dissatisfaction. It doesn’t mean voters want the U.S. to surrender in the global race for clean energy innovation and jobs. But they do want to know how advancing clean energy will make our economy stronger and benefit their bottom line. And the new Institute for Climate and Sustainable Growth at the University of Chicago, led by Michael Greenstone, has both the expertise and focus we’ll need to make that case.
Building on the University’s renowned tradition of using economics to tackle major challenges, the Institute will work to measure the economic cost of climate change. Voters made clear they are deeply concerned about the strain on their family budgets. We need to better understand, and help consumers understand, the connection between rising temperatures and rising prices. Everything from insurance to food gets more expensive when you have increasing drought, more damaging storms, and extreme heat. In addition, the Institute’s economists will work on policies and markets that can grow the economy and jobs, even as they make the air cleaner.
The rapid expansion of clean energy over the last decade has been encouraging, and a boost for the economy. But there are still technical and political bottlenecks to overcome in order to make the building of clean energy projects faster and more efficient. This would be a worthy area of study for the Institute.
We also need to scale up storage for clean energy. In some energy markets, including California, they often meet all of their electricity needs with clean energy – during the day. But we need to store that energy for when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing. The Institute’s focus on this technical challenge is critically important.
Another option that’s been proposed to reduce warming, if the switch to a clean economy doesn’t move quickly enough, is solar radiation modification. In simple terms, SRM refers to strategies for reflecting some sunlight back into space. Many people are understandably concerned about the potential dangers, or fear that entertaining this idea will be used as an excuse to slow our transition away from fossil fuels. But the new University of Chicago institute, to its credit, knows we must expand our knowledge in this area. It is critical that decision-makers and the public have a better understanding of the potential implications of deploying SRM before it is seriously considered. We cannot rule out the possibility that a country will move forward toward deployment, so expanding our understanding is essential.
To meet the climate crisis, we need to expand our knowledge – scientific, technical, economic. Having a new institution to educate future leaders who are equipped to take on climate change and fill gaps in the climate economy — especially one focused on the tough questions and hardheaded economic choices — is good news for those who know the urgency of this fight.